Derek Achong
Senior Reporter
The State has been ordered to pay over $2.5 million in compensation to a woman who was subjected to a campaign of cruel and unusual punishment, including being repeatedly sexually assaulted by a female prison officer, while serving a 12-year sentence for manslaughter.
High Court Judge Robin Mohammed ordered compensation for Nadia Pooran on Friday as he upheld her landmark constitutional claim pursued by her lawyers, led by Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, of Freedom Law Chambers.
In upholding Pooran’s case, Justice Mohammed found that she had been failed by servants and agents of the State at every level.
“That failure was not the product of malice. It was the product of institutional indifference, administrative incompetence, and a culture within the prison system that has been the subject of judicial and public commentary for decades,” Justice Mohammed said.
He expressed hope that his judgment in the case, highlighting the severe constitutional breaches endured by Pooran, would lead to reform in the prison system.
“That culture cannot be allowed to persist. The Constitution demands better. The Claimant deserved better,” Justice Mohammed said.
“It is the hope of this Court that the findings made herein will serve as a powerful signal to the State that the constitutional rights of prisoners must be respected, that those who are entrusted with their custody bear a serious legal and moral responsibility to uphold those rights, and that the Courts of this jurisdiction will not hesitate to hold the account where that responsibility is not discharged,” he added.
The crime Pooran was sentenced for
Pooran, Shelly-Ann Anganoo, Nicholas Ali, and Tesfa Jones were accused of murdering 41-year-old teacher Ralphy Ramcharan on March 25, 2003.
According to the evidence presented during their trial, the women were liming with Ramcharan at a bar in Curepe and agreed to leave with him.
When they got into the car, Ali and Jones entered the vehicle.
Ramcharan was robbed of his cash and restrained before one of the men drove the group to a lonely area of Barataria.
Ramcharan was beaten with a wheel spanner and repeatedly stabbed with a pair of scissors before being thrown into a nearby river.
The group was eventually allowed to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and each was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Pooran’s three co-accused won their appeals over the severity of their sentence and received five-year reductions.
Pooran pursued her appeal several years later and her sentence was eventually reduced to 12 years in 2016. Pooran was immediately released as she had already served more than a year over her sentence when the Court of Appeal upheld her appeal.
Conditions in prison
The lawsuit before Justice Mohammed centred around the harsh prison conditions Pooran endured while on remand awaiting trial, after entering the guilty plea, and while appealing the sentence she received.
In her lengthy affidavit submitted for the lawsuit, Pooran claimed that she and other inmates at the Women’s Prison in Arouca were subjected to overcrowding, poor ventilation and sanitation.
She claimed that they were subjected to long periods of confinement to their cells as they were given infrequent airings, especially during the rainy season.
She claimed that in 2005 she joined prisoners in a hunger strike as she suffered severe food allergies from the meals being served by the prison.
“I was forced to eat white rice and peas or bread and butter alone,” she said.
Pooran claimed that she could not afford to purchase food from the prison’s canteen as her mother could not afford to give her money while caring for her seven younger siblings almost single-handedly.
Pooran, who gave birth one month before she was charged and remanded, claimed that she suffered post-partum medical conditions but was not afforded any specialist medical treatment.
She also claimed that in 2012 she developed abscesses on her arm and calf and was forced to treat them herself using sanitary pads as a substitute for gauze.
She claimed that she only saw her newborn son once within her first three years of prison as there was not a programme in place at the time to allow children to visit incarcerated parents.
Despite what she endured, Pooran still participated in numerous rehabilitation, educational and life skills programmes while in prison and left with nine CXC passes and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) diploma.
Sexual assault by prison officer
Pooran provided explicit details of her repeated sexual assault by inmates and a particular prison officer, who abused her repeatedly over a four-year period.
She claimed that the attacks were particularly traumatic for her as she was forced into prostitution and sexually exploited at a young age before being incarcerated.
“There was one particular officer who repeatedly exploited and abused me and turned me into her personal sex slave,” she said.
“I was punished when I rejected these sexual advances and overtures,” she added.
She claimed that in one incident the officer forced her to perform oral sex on her while she was assigned to clean the toilet area of the prison. The officer allegedly recorded the incident on her cellphone.
“I was crying for part of the time as I felt disgusted, ashamed and humiliated,” she said.
She claimed that she was placed in solitary confinement when she reported the attacks by the officer.
She claimed that while isolated, the officer visited her with a set of white lingerie and forced her to model in it for her to take photographs.
She claimed the attacks stopped in 2010 after she fought back and professed her willingness to die to preserve her dignity.
“I told her that I did not care if I die but that she would have to kill me,” Pooran said.
Pooran’s constitutional rights breached
In determining her case, Justice Mohammed found that her right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment was breached.
“The State not only failed to provide the elementary necessities of humane detention but perpetrated and facilitated abuse against the Claimant throughout her incarceration,” Justice Mohammed said.
“The cumulative weight of these conditions, sustained over thirteen years without relief, went far beyond harsh and crossed the threshold of what can properly be described as cruel and unusual.
Justice Mohammed upheld her claims of repeated sexual abuse, which she maintained while under intense cross-examination from State attorneys.
While he noted that the officer provided an affidavit categorically denying the allegations levelled against her, she (the officer) did not attend the hearing of the case to be cross-examined by Pooran’s lawyers.
“The Claimant’s evidence on the sexual abuse stands uncontradicted before this Court and is accepted in its entirety,” he said.
Justice Mohammed also found that Pooran’s constitutional right to equality of treatment from a public authority was breached as she was not transferred from the convicted section of the prison while pursuing her appeal, as was done with other prisoners including her former co-accused.
He rejected claims from the State that Pooran was treated differently from Anganoo because she (Pooran) was already serving her sentence when she appealed later than Anganoo.
“The Defendant has offered no justification rooted in law…No legitimate aim had been identified by the Defendant that could justify the differential treatment,” he said.
In assessing the appropriate compensation for Pooran, Justice Mohammed ordered $2 million in general damages, which was calculated at $450 a day for the period of her incarceration.
He also ordered $450,000 in vindicatory damages to highlight the constitutional breaches Pooran endured.
“The gravity of the breaches established in this judgment is exceptional,” Justice Mohammed said.
Asylum in the UK
Pooran learned of her legal victory in the case in the United Kingdom (UK), where she is currently seeking asylum.
Several years after being released from prison she witnessed the murders of her cousin Kerron Rampersad and his girlfriend Crystal Herralal, who were shot dead in front of her at their home.
She said that she decided to seek asylum in the UK as homicide detectives could not provide witness protection for her.
She also claimed that even before witnessing the murders, she was contemplating leaving the country.
“It was virtually impossible to survive after I left prison. No one would hire me and the only option that presented itself was joining criminal gangs that specifically targeted and recruited me to be a drug mule and prostitute,” she said.
Since moving to the UK, Pooran has sought to further her education.
In 2023, she obtained a BA in Sociology with First Class Honours from the University of Bradford. She is currently pursuing an MA in Politics and International Relations from the University of Leicester and is set to graduate in January next year.
In her affidavit, Pooran expressed remorse for her role in killing Ramcharan, who was described as an “innocent man”.
“I was young and kept bad company because I came from an extremely poor family and was forced to live on the streets. I had no home and no family support and hence got involved with the wrong crowd in order to survive on the streets,” Pooran said.
She also admitted that she has not been able to rekindle her relationship with her two children due to her lengthy incarceration away from them.
Pooran was also represented by Renuka Rambhajan, Ganesh Saroop, Jayanti Lutchmedial, and Natasha Bisram. The Office of the Attorney General was represented by Monica Smith, Maria Belmar-Williams, and Savitri Maharaj.
