Erin serial rapist loses appeal

AN Erin man dubbed a serial rapist who posed as a PH driver has lost his appeal against the 27-year sentence imposed on him in 2018, which he complained was excessive.

At his appeal, heard in August 2021, Jude John Arjoon complained of the sentencing principles the judge applied for the starting point for the rape and manslaughter charges; the fact that the judge found no mitigating factors; and his imposition of consecutive sentences.

In November 2017, Arjoon pleaded guilty to six charges of robbery, kidnapping, rape and manslaughter on three separate indictments.

In June 2018, Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas him sentenced to 27 years and a month.

On Monday, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Gillian Lucky delivered a joint decision, dismissing all but part of one of the three grounds raised by Arjoon’s attorney Rajiv Persad.

While admitting that the sentencing judge should have used his prospects for rehabilitation and his positive report from the prison as a positive mitigating factor, they said this still would have had no impact on the overall sentence.

Arjoon, originally from Point Fortin, pretended to be a PH driver when he committed offences against three women. He was arrested in July 2005 and was committed to stand trial on a series of offences.

When he appeared in the High Court, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter but asked for the other indictments to be heard together.

For manslaughter, Arjoon was sentenced to 21 years but received discounts for his guilty plea and the time spent in prison awaiting trial, leaving one year and one month to serve. On the second indictment for kidnapping, rape and robbery, he was sentenced to 24, 12 and nine years before the one-third guilty-plea deduction. For the third indictment, Arjoon was sentenced to 14 years for kidnapping and six for robbery before the one-third discount.

The sentences for the separate charges were to run concurrently (or together), and consecutively of each other, meaning one after the other.

In their ruling, the judges said the determination of a starting point was up the discretion of a sentencing judge. In Arjoon’s case, they said St Clair-Douglas’s were fair and appropriate.

They also said age could not be used as a mitigating factor.

“It is important to send the message to young offenders who have passed the age of majority that they must be accountable for their actions. The manner in which these crimes were committed does not justify any deduction on account of the youth of the appellant.”

Arjoon was 22 at the time.

On his rehabilitative prospects, the judges said it was unfortunate that prisoners can only participate in rehabilitation programmes after they are convicted and not while on remand.

“Punishment is one of the main objectives of sentencing, but so too is rehabilitation.”

On guilt and remorse, the court said the former did not equate to the latter but sentencing credit could be given if remorse was manifest.

On the totality principle, which applies when a court imposes multiple sentences of imprisonment after considering the totality of the criminal behaviour and determining the appropriate sentence for all the offences, they said the legislation provided for the imposition of consecutive sentences.

They also agreed that the current sentencing guidelines for judges on the method they should adopt in arriving at a sentence should also incorporate the “totality principle.”

“This final step will enjoin the sentencer, after the determination of the appropriate sentence(s) to be imposed, to ‘step back’ and glean the intended sentence, whether individual or aggregate, consistent with the totality principle. The purpose of this final step is to ensure that the sentence(s) imposed is/are proportionate and not excessive.”

On April 28, 2005, Arjoon, 39, picked up Mary Baldeo-Waheed, who jumped out of his car after he ignored her request to be dropped off at Library Corner, San Fernando.

Passersby helped her afterwards but she died the next day at the San Fernando General Hospital from massive blunt-force head trauma.

Arjoon was charged with manslaughter for her death.

At the time Arjoon picked up Baldeo-Waheed, he had another woman in the trunk of the car. She had got into the car at Harris Promenade, San Fernando. Arjoon took her to a gravel road in Debe, where he robbed her of a bank card, $35 cash and her cell phone, and threatened to "blow out her brains" if she gave him the wrong number for the bank card. He also showed her a woman's wallet which contained pictures of children, and told her he had killed the owner.

Arjoon could not tie the woman’s hands because her left arm ended just below her elbow. Instead, he put her in the trunk and drove off.

Some time later he stopped the car and again asked her for the PIN number. The woman was raped.

He later picked up Baldeo-Waheed. After she jumped out of the car, which he admitted to stealing, Arjoon released his other victim and abandoned the car at Gulf City Mall.

A month later, Arjoon picked up his third victim in Marabella. When he took an unusual route to San Fernando, she asked to be let out of the car but was ignored. She tried to open the door, but it was locked, and he took her to a gravel road along the M2 Ring Road, where he robbed her. He tried to rape her and after cutting off her jeans and underwear, he threw her into the trunk. She managed to jump out and got help from a passerby.