Appeal Court affirms ex-cop's sodomy conviction, sentence

-lawyer granted leave to approach CCJ

Vaughn Thomas

Seven years after he first appeared in court charged with sexually assaulting a young boy while serving as a member of the Guyana Police Force, Vaughn Thomas has lost an appeal that challenged his conviction and ten-year prison sentence.

Thomas sodomising a 15-year-old boy

 

But an application by his attorney, Nigel Hughes has cleared the way for Thomas' case to go to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). After the Appeal Court panel - Justices Claudette Singh, Ian Chang and Nandram Kissoon - handed down the decision, Hughes applied for leave to approach the recently inaugurated CCJ and it was granted.

Attorney-at-law, Roger Yearwood, who appeared in association with Hughes, had argued Thomas's case at the Appeal Court hearing.

Thomas, an ex-policeman who was attached to the Grove Police Station, approa-ched the Guyana Court of Appeal through his lawyers last December, more than a year after he was found guilty by a jury and later slapped with a ten-year sentence by Justice Winston Moore.

He appealed on the grounds that there were mis-directions by the judge on the issue of identification. He also argued that the judge improperly admitted into evidence the deposition of a deceased witness and that his confession was improperly admitted.

Yesterday, the Appeal Court panel affirmed the conviction and the sentence and ruled that though there were some mis-directions in the High Court case, they were in Thomas' favour and did not prevent him from receiving a fair trial.

Thomas was dismissed from the force after charges were instituted against him and in November 2004, his jury trial commenced before Justice Winston Moore.

He was accused of sodomising a 15-year-old boy on March 27, 1999 in an alleyway at Land of Canaan on the East Bank Demerara, about 12 feet off the public road. During the trial, the victim took the stand and testified that he was jogging along the East Bank public road on the night in question when Thomas drove up alongside him in police vehicle. He was topless at the time and recalled that Thomas made an issue of this before ordering him into the car.

The boy told the jury he begged to go home and Thomas dealt him a slap. He said the policeman then drove to a remote alley and committed the act. The jury had a detailed account of the assault the boy suffered. According to the victim, Thomas told him that what happened that night was just between the two of them but he told his parents the minute he got home.

Hughes, who also appeared for Thomas during the High Court trial, had argued then that the victim was told on the day of the identification parade that the suspect was going to be on the parade and the victim admitted this.

However, in evidence that was read in court, Thomas had confessed to Assistant Superintendent of Police Lawrence, that he had picked up the boy the night and later had sex with him.

On November 9, 2004, the jury unanimously found Thomas guilty of buggery and common assault after deliberating for less than two hours. On November 22, Justice Moore sentenced him to ten years imprisonment.

In passing judgement, Justice Moore said the element of aggravation was that Thomas used his uniform, which constituted a pledge to serve and protect, for a reprehensible purpose. Justice Moore said the accused even admitted committing the act with the expectation that the force would have covered it up.