EXTREME BRUTALITY

NICHOLAS Ramsaroop was brutally bludgeoned by Desmond Cyrus and Michael Edwards who both took turns raping a woman who was with Ramsaroop. For their crimes of “extreme brutality” against Ramsaroop and the woman on November 26, 2005, Cyrus of Teschier Village, Point Fortin and Edwards of John Elie Road, Chase Village, were sentenced to a total of 25 years, two months and two weeks’ hard labour by High Court judge Hayden St Clair-Douglas in the Port of Spain High Court yesterday.

Both men pleaded guilty on May 10, 2017. They were on multiple indictments of murder, rape, grievous sexual assault, robbery with violence, kidnapping and false imprisonment. Edwards faced a separate indictment of attempted buggery.

They were each sentenced to nine years, 11 months and two weeks for murder; 11 years, three months and two weeks for rape; and three years, 11 months and two weeks for grievous sexual assault.

Their sentences for the other offences were recorded as having been served, as they have been in prison for 12 years, four months and two weeks.

They were sentenced to a total of 11 years, four months for those, while Edwards received six years and eight months for the attempted buggery. The sentences are to run concurrently. Ramsaroop, 25, of McLeod Trace, Freeport died at hospital the next morning before he could undergo surgery. His mother Nandrani Boodoosingh, was told by a neurologist at the Port of Spain General Hospital there was 99 per cent damage to his brain.

In a victim impact statement, the grieving mother described her son’s killing as “disturbing and disgusting.” She continues to grieve and suffers multiple ailments and depression. Cyrus’ and Edwards’ female victim has been left scarred for life and her multiple rapes and witnessing her friend’s murder still haunt her. In her victim impact statement, she described the two as “animals”.

Ramsaroop and the woman were pounced on by Cyrus and Edwards after buying a drink at a bar in Freeport. They demanded money and a bank card. The couple pleaded with their attackers, saying they had neither, and the men took them in Ramsaroop’s car to a lonely area in Carlsen Field. Ramsaroop was beaten repeatedly.

The woman was raped four times by the men, who also forced her to perform oral sex on them. They kicked her chest, back and stomach, threatened to cut off her nipples and her vagina and stole her jewellery. They gave her Ramsaroop’s T-shirt, then threw her out of the car and told her to run. She made her way to a house and asked for help.

When they were arrested two weeks later, Cyrus and Edwards took police to the scene of their crimes. In sentencing them, the judge said both men used “extreme brutality and gratuitous acts of violence.” He noted their expressions of remorse, but said there is a difference between that and regret at being apprehended.

The judge also spared the two a natural-life sentence for the multiple rape, saying they were not beyond redemption. Cyrus and Edwards were represented by attorneys Keith Scotland and Kirk Hogan while Veona Neal-Munroe prosecuted the men.