Two years after a West Demerara grandmother had been horrifically killed in a sexual assault, her attacker — Stanley Barrow, called ‘Cuffy’ — was on Thursday afternoon handed a prison sentence of 45 years.
Barrow admitted that, in July 2015, the 68-year-old Megan Jones had been wandering alone at the Vreed-en-Hoop jetty on the West Coast of Demerara when he beat and sexually assaulted her before cutting out her tongue.
Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, in handing down sentence, subtracted eight years for Barrow’s guilty plea to the offence of manslaughter, and two additional years for time spent awaiting trial. As such, Barrow, a known drug addict, will spend the next 35 years behind bars with the chance of getting parole after 25 years.
In computing the sentence, Justice Ramlall considered that the convict has a separate rape matter pending before the courts.
Back in 2015, Jones’s family acknowledged that the elderly woman suffered periods of mental health problems in the past, but it was stated that she was in the right frame of mind during the time of the brutal attack. According to reports, “Cuffy” outlined that he decided to remove the elderly woman’s tongue after she began complaining of pains during the time he sexually assaulted her.
After he and other accomplices fled the scene, passersby rescued Jones and transported her to hospital, but she succumbed three days later. She was however able to indicate by writing the name of the person who had perpetrated the act upon her.
Relatives had noted that the assaulted woman was found with her jaw, ribs, right arm and leg broken, in addition to part of her tongue being severed.
Barrow was represented by defence counsel Maxwell Mc Kay, while Prosecutors Seeta Bisundial, Abigail Gibbs and Narissa Leander presented the State’s case.
