By Michael Jordan
Bibi Shareema Gopaul, who was convicted in 2015 of murdering her 16-year-old daughter, Neesa Gopaul, is now a free woman.
She was released from prison just about three months ago, but her release appears to have been the best kept secret.
BIG Smith News Watch was able to confirm from the Director of Prisons, that Bibi Shareema Gopaul was released from jail, after her 25 year sentence for murdering her daughter was reduced by the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Gopaul along with her reputed husband were jailed for the murder of the 16 year old girl back in 2010.
When BIG Smith News Watch visited the home of the convicted killer on Tuesday looked none the worst for her time behind bars.
She repeatedly declined requests for an interview. According to Gopaul, her reluctance is directly linked to what she termed the unprofessional and bias reporting by the media during the police investigation and during her trial of the murder of her daughter. Gopaul also indicated that she was innocent.
She was initially sentenced in the High Court to 96 years in jail, while her co-accused and former lover, Jarvis ‘Barry’ Small, was sentenced to 106 years.
Her sentence was reduced to 45 years and then further reduced to 25 years with the possibility of parole after 15 years, following appeals to the Guyana Court of Appeal and the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2022. However, the CJJ rejected her appeal to have her case dismissed.
But the CCJ directed that her co-accused, Jarvis Small, be freed due to lack of sufficient evidence to link him to the teen’s murder.
Representing Small at the CCJ, attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes had said that his client should have been tried separately from Gopaul.
Hughes also contended that the only evidence produced during the trial against Small was a pair of dumb-bells that were found at the crime scene. The police alleged that the dumb-bells belonged to Small.