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.
