BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CALVERT DOYLING, who was originally charged with rape but pleaded guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge of a seven-year-old girl at the May 2010 Assizes, will be appealing against his 16-year sentence at next week’s sitting of the Court of Appeal.
The five-day sitting of the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court for 2011 will begin on Monday (Mar. 14) and a number of criminal and civil matters are scheduled for hearing.
In the case of Doyling, a resident of Old Road, the prosecutor said the incident took place on April 4, 2008 at about 6:30 in the morning and police officers became aware of it after a report was filed by the victim’s older sister.
The court was also told that the child was taken to the Joseph N. France General Hospital, where she was treated and warded for some time.
At his May 20, 2010 sentencing, the convicted rapist told the court that he did not know what came over him when he committed the offence, and indicated that he was consuming alcohol sometime prior to the incident which may have influenced his behaviour.
Sentencing judge His Lordship Justice Francis Belle scolded the rapist and described him as being “reckless” for continuing to consume alcohol when he was aware of the effects it had on him.
The maximum sentence for unlawful carnal knowledge is life imprisonment.
Convicted murderer Romeo ‘Buncum’ Cannonier will once again challenge his death sentence penalty for the killing of a police officer. Cannonier first appealed both the conviction and sentencing in November 2008, but the Justices of Appeal ruled that his conviction of Nisbett’s murder and the death sentence be sustained.
On October 23, 2007, a five-man-seven-woman jury had convicted Cannonier of Police Constable Delvin Nisbett’s July 25, 2004 murder.
Nisbett was gunned down in cold blood on that night while traversing a stretch of road between Parsons Village and Dieppe Bay en route to his girl friend’s home. According to evidence presented during the case, Cannonier confessed to his then-girlfriend that he had committed the crime.
Cannonier is also appealing against another death sentence he received jointly with three other men after being convicted for the murder of Gavin ‘Magilla’ Gilbert.
Ruedeney Williams, Sheldon Isaac and Louis Gardener along with Cannonier were all sentenced to death by hanging by the then presiding judge, Justice Albert Redhead.
According to the indictment, the men, sometime between December 2004 and March 21, 2005, conspired to murder Gavin Gilbert who was killed just outside of his Saddlers Village home on the latter date.
Both of Cannonier’s appeals and those of Williams, Isaac and Gardener were adjourned from the last court of appeal sitting held in September 2010.
Sandy Pointer Desi Williams, who pleaded guilty to burglary, will also appeal a 12-year sentence he received for the crime at the May 2010 Assizes.
Williams is accused of breaking into a young woman’s home sometime on the night of October 20, 2008. A confrontation ensued between the burglar and the occupant, and he departed the scene with the young woman’s laptop.
At his sentencing, the 21-year-old said he was sorry for the “pain and loss” his actions caused the victim and wished he “could pay her back”. He beseeched the court for clemency.
Sentencing judge His Lordship Justice Francis Belle said although the accused pleaded guilty, he had some difficulty with the fact that Williams was asking a judge who has shown him mercy in the past, to do the same on a similar charge.
He sentenced the young man to 12 years at Her Majesty’s Prison to be served with hard labour. Williams was previously sentenced to serve 18 years imprisonment on a rape charge and an additional 15 years for robbery.
Kevin Kelly of St. Paul’s Village is the last convict who will appear at the Court of Appeal. He had pleaded guilty to house breaking and larceny and was imprisoned on June 3, 2010.
Kelly admitted that on October 12, 2009 he had broken into a Newton Ground home and stole a laptop, DVDs and a DVD player. While the DVDs and laptop were found at his home, the DVD player was not found because, as Kelly explained, it fell from his hands and broke and he threw it into a ghaut.
Kelly expressed penitence for his actions and informed the court that he was once a student of the Special Education Unit, to which the judge had shown some leniency and sentenced him to six years in prison.
