Serial rapist challenges 27-year jail sentence

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A serial rapist has challenged the 27 years and a month prison sentence he received after pleading guilty to separate attacks on three women including one in which the victim died after jumping out of his moving vehicle to escape him.

Presenting submissions in his appeal before Appellate Judges Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Gillian Lucky yesterday, attorneys for Jude John Arjoon claimed that High Court Judge Hayden St Clair-Douglas got it wrong when he calculated the overall sentence for the series of crimes.

Arjoon, 39, of Point Fortin, was facing three separate indictments, each containing multiple offences, for the crimes that were committed over a month in 2005. In the first indictment, Arjoon was accused of manslaughter in relation to the death of Mary Baldeo-Waheed. Baldeo-Waheed was picked up by Arjoon and asked to be dropped off Library Corner in San Fernando, in April 2005.

However, Arjoon diverted from the route as he claimed that he had to pick up his daughter. Baldeo-Waheed kept questioning him over the diversion and he did not respond. She eventually jumped out of the back seat of the moving vehicle along the M2 Ring Road. She was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital but succumbed to the head injuries she sustained in her daring escape.

In sentencing Arjoon in relation to Baldeo-Waheed’s death in 2018, St Clair-Douglas began with a starting point of 21 years. After applying a one third discount for his guilty plea and deducting the time he spent on remand after being charged in 2005, Arjoon was left with a sentence of one year and a month.

The second indictment related to an attack on another woman, who was allegedly locked in the trunk of Arjoon’s car when Baldeo-Waheed was abducted. After Baldeo-Waheed escaped, Arjoon reportedly took the second victim to an unpaved road where he robbed her of her bank card, $35 and her cellphone.

He then raped her twice before abandoning her at the location. Arjoon was charged with kidnapping, rape and robbery. He was sentenced to 16 years for rape, eight for kidnapping and six for robbery. St Clair-Douglas ordered that the sentences be served concurrently, meaning that he would have to serve the highest sentence of 16 years.

The third attack happened almost a month later in May 2005. The victim was picked up in Marabella and asked to be taken to San Fernando. Arjoon took the victim to the unpaved road, where he robbed her, stripped her naked and placed her in the trunk. The victim was able to open the trunk and jump out of the moving vehicle. Unlike Baldeo-Waheed, that victim only sustained minor injuries and survived.

Arjoon was sentenced to 10 years for kidnapping and four for robbery. Those sentences were ordered to be served concurrently. As part of the sentence, St Clair-Douglas ordered Arjoon to serve the sentences for all three indictments consecutively, meaning that he would serve a total sentence of 27 years and a month in prison.

During yesterday’s hearing, Yorke-Soo Hon noted that the appeal was important as it was the first time the Court of Appeal was considering consecutive sentences to provide guidance to High Court Judges, prosecutors and defence attorneys.

Presenting submissions on Arjoon’s behalf, his lawyer Rajiv Persad claimed that while a consecutive sentence was permissible as his client pleaded guilty to three different indictments, the overall sentence was disproportionate and excessive as Arjoon would have to serve a total 40 years in prison to complete his sentence although he pleaded guilty.

Persad also claimed that the starting point for the manslaughter sentence should have been 15 years based on the facts of the case.

He also claimed that St Clair-Douglas failed to properly consider mitigating factors, which could have reduced his client’s sentence further. Attorney Travers Sinanan, who represented the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), agreed that consecutive sentences were appropriate in the circumstances.

He also claimed that the assessment of the sentence for each indictment could not be faulted based on the callous and heinous nature of Arjoon’s crimes. Sinanan said that the sentence could not be considered harsh and oppressive as the maximum sentence for rape and manslaughter is life imprisonment.

He also noted that while Arjoon could have been charged with two rape charges from the attack on the second woman, he was only charged once. At the end of the hearing, the appeal panel requested additional submissions on consecutive sentences.

The case is expected to come up for hearing on October 26. Arjoon is also being represented by Larry Boyer, Vanita Ramroop, Joshua Hamlet, Ajesh Sumessar and Gabriel Hernandez.