After being convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the chance of release in July for the rape of a schoolgirl, Wesley Bazil, also known as “Tappy”, has launched an appeal to have his conviction and sentence overturned.
His Notice of Appeal has been lodged with the Court of Appeal.
Bazil, a shopkeeper, who had been deported to Guyana after serving time in a United States’ jail for a sex crime, had the sentence imposed on him by Justice Navindra Singh.
He was convicted by a jury of rape and sexual activity committed on a girl aged 15.
In his sentencing remarks, Justice Singh had called Bazil a “recidivist predator”, and said he had dragged his victim through a trial knowing fully well what he had done to her.
Given the convict’s perverted ways, the Judge had asked, “Why would I release him?”
When the victim’s impact statement was read to the court by the prosecutor, the teen shared that as a result of the incident, she went through a period of depression.
“The situation got to a point where I thought that everyone was better off without me. It made me drop out of school and made me start practising self-harm and running away from home. All I had planned for my future was ruined,” she had written.
In December 2020, Bazil touched the girl inappropriately after she went to his shop to make a purchase. The following month, he dragged her to the back of his yard and raped her.
Her parents found out that she had been sexually abused only after her mother had taken away her cell phone and saw that she had been discussing the incident with a friend via text messages.
A report was filed with the Police, and Bazil was arrested and prosecuted.
After the jury had announced its verdict, Bazil had attempted suicide by harming himself with a razor blade. He had reportedly inflicted several cuts to his throat.
Swift intervention by the court marshals had, however, prevented him from further injuring himself, but he nonetheless had lost consciousness and collapsed.
He had immediately been rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC).
