In a significant judicial ruling that closes a decades-old case, convicted murderer Chuck Attin, also known as Clint Pierre, has been sentenced to an additional 22 years and 9 months imprisonment for the 1994 rape of a domestic worker during the same crime spree that claimed two lives in Westmoorings, Trinidad.
High Court Justice Kathy-Ann Waterman-Latchoo delivered the sentence after Attin pleaded guilty to multiple sexual offenses, including rape, serious indecency, and buggery. The court imposed a total sentence of 26 years and 8 months with hard labor for the rape charge, granting credit for 3 years, 10 months and 5 days already served in pre-trial custody.
The additional sentences come thirty years after Attin, then just 15 years old, and accomplice Noel Seepersad murdered Candace Scott, 23, and Karen Sa Gomes, 31, in a brutal home invasion. Attin has been detained since 1994 and is already serving time at the court’s pleasure for the murders under a sentence that required periodic reviews.
Justice Waterman-Latchoo rejected defense arguments for concurrent sentencing and discounts due to procedural delays, ordering instead that the sentences run consecutively as they would have if prosecuted in 1996. The judge also completely extinguished separate one-year sentences for indecency and buggery due to time already served.
The horrific details of the case emerged during proceedings: On July 11, 1994, the victims’ maid was alone with the Scotts’ infant son when Attin and Seepersad arrived under false pretenses. After threatening the woman’s life, Attin sexually assaulted her multiple times while Seepersad ransacked the property. Both men subjected the victim to repeated rape and buggery while threatening to kill the crying infant.
Forensic evidence and identification parades subsequently linked both men to the crimes. Seepersad was convicted and sentenced to hang, though his appeal to the Privy Council was ultimately dismissed.
State prosecutor Shervon Noreiga secured the conviction while defense attorney Michelle Ali of the Public Defenders’ Department represented Attin during sentencing proceedings that concluded this month.