An eloquent convicted fraudster, Troy Webster, was on Wednesday afternoon handed a prison sentence of 30 years by Sexual Offences Court Judge Jo-Ann Barlow after a majority jury found him guilty of sexually penetrating a woman without her consent. The jury produced the 11-1 verdict after a few hours of deliberation.
The rape survivor was 25 years old at the time of the attack, which was said to have occurred on November 21, 2015 at a community in the county of Demerara.
The prosecution contended that Webster had also tricked the woman into giving him money in addition to raping her. The offender, who was convicted multiple times for conning several women in the past, had pleaded not guilty when his matter came up for trial earlier this month. He was represented by Attorney Clyde Forde while Attorneys Seeta Bishundial, Tiffini Lyken and Abigail Gibbs prosecuted the case.
Although he had already been committed to serve a prison sentence for a similar offence four years prior, the now convicted rapist was jailed for nine years by Magistrate Judy Latchman in August 2017 after he pleaded guilty with explanation to six charges. He had admitted that between August 17 and 21, 2017, at Georgetown and with intent to defraud, he obtained from six women (names withheld) G$7000 each, pretending to be in a position to offer each of them a job.
It was revealed that he would pose as a businessman seeking females to work either in the Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) area or on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). He would request a sum of G$7000 along with a copy of their identification card, but would vanish after informing them that he would make contact with them to commence work.
In May 2013, he was jailed for three years after defrauding seven young women (names withheld) of their valuables. He similarly collected G$7500 of a down payment from six of them for uniforms for employment. In that case, he had also been charged with fraudulent conversion, whereby he had taken a pair of gold earrings from one of his victims, claiming that this was for her employment.
