A 30-year-old Morvant man was yesterday sentenced to a total of 49 years in prison for the rape, grievous sexual assault and robbery of a woman in 2005.
In the Port-of-Spain High Court, Justice Devan Rampersad ordered Akiedo Guerra to serve 25 years for the rape and 12 years each for the two other offences.
However, the sentences will run concurrently and Guerra is expected to be released in 17 and a half years. The seven and a half years he spent on remand awaiting trial was deducted from his overall sentence.
Guerra stood silently in the prisoner’s enclosure of the court during the sentencing, periodically glancing at six of his female relatives who were seated behind him. He was heard muttering about the severity of the sentence.
According to evidence presented in the trial last month, the attack took place near the victim’s home at Second Caledonia, Morvant, on May 18, 2005.
The victim said she was returning home from work when she was accosted by Guerra and another man.
Guerra, who was armed with a gun, and his accomplice robbed the victim of $50 and forced her to walk to a nearby track where they took turns raping her.
Justice Rampersad said the fact that Guerra was 18 at the time of the incident and had a clean criminal record could not be considered as mitigating factors since he showed no remorse for the crimes, which he described as heinous.
“This was a young woman who was returning from a day of work and was entitled to return to her family safely,” he said.
Rampersad also considered the submissions of State prosecutor Joy Balkaran, who highlighted the fact that Guerra chose to take the case to trial despite the fact that there was damning evidence against him, including a sperm sample taken from the victim after the assault which was matched to Guerra using DNA testing.
Balkaran said: “Victims of these kinds of attackers are literally like the living dead. Most of them never get over it and are are unable to lead normal lives.”
