Nearly four years after committing the heinous rape and murder of a female taxi driver, Sylvester Bristol also called “Rambo”, was sentenced to serve 16 years in prison following his admission that he killed 31-year-old Savitri Parma between February 15-16, 2014, at Yarrowkabra along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
Bristol was handed his sentence by Justice Navindra Singh on Tuesday afternoon after he pleaded to the lesser count of manslaughter at the Demerara High Court. Presenting the evidence detailing the death of the 31-year-old mother of two was State Prosecutor, Tiffini Lyken who told the court that Parma was raped, killed and tortured with a piece of bamboo that was discovered inserted in the woman’s vagina. Her uterus was also ruptured as a result of the heinous act.
The court also heard that the murdered Soesdyke taxi driver’s son was only a few feet away in the car. The Prosecutor further highlighted that after Bristol had dragged the woman to the bushes and committed the heinous act, he fled the scene. He was later found with the woman’s gold ring. Additionally, he only had one side of his footwear and subsequently confessed to his crime after he was grilled by Police.
Bristol, who was a heavy machine operator, was said to have led Police to the site where he put the lace that he used to strangle the woman to death. The post-mortem examination gave Parma’s cause of death as strangulation.
Represented by Attorney George Thomas, the accused on the verge of tears begged for the court’s mercy and told Justice Singh that he wasn’t in his right senses and could not remember what happened on that night.
Justice Singh before handing down the 16-year sentence took into consideration that the accused did not waste the court’s time and he accepted what he did was wrong. The judge ordered the prison service to deduct the time that Bristol spent on remand.
Relatives of the deceased were however displeased with the years allotted, to Bristol, as almost four years would be deducted from the court’s sentence. They noted that the woman’s sons, especially the one who was present when the woman was murdered, are still affected by the cruel death of their mother. (Shemuel Fanfair)
