The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON Tribune Staff Reporter ljohnson@tribunemedia.net FORMER teacher and convicted paedophile Andre Birbal will return to the Court of Appeal today to contest the conviction and sentence handed down to him last year. The matter, which is before Justices Anita Allen, Stanley John and Abdulai Conteh, has been subject to a series of delays because trial transcripts were missing. It was also postponed once because Birbal's court-appointed attorney Craig Butler was not sufficiently prepared to proceed. At the last hearing in February, Mr Butler said the delay was the result of his firm only having been assigned the matter late last year. He added that a colleague who had met with Birbal on a few occasions no longer worked with the firm. Mr Butler also admitted he had not had a chance to meet with his client until the day before the hearing. The independent candidate for Bamboo Town assured Justice Conteh the adjournment request was not because of "political silly season". Justice Allen said no more adjournments would be granted. The former teacher, who was convicted in the Supreme Court in January 2011 of having unnatural sex with two juvenile boys, is seeking to have the higher court overturn the ruling. On January 26, 2011, Birbal was found guilty of six of the eight charges he faced. The 49-year-old was found guilty of all five counts relating to the first male student, but of only one of the three counts concerning the second. Justice Hartman Longley, before passing sentence, said it was "one of the worst cases of sexual molestation of young boys" he has ever encountered. The judge told Birbal: "You used the offices of the church and your position as a teacher, and your relationship with the boys to gain confidence of the boys, but also the confidence and trust of their parents, while scheming all the time to carry out a diabolic plot of purgatory sexual exploitation of the boys to satisfy your deprived sexual appetite." The judge imposed a 15-year sentence of the first count and a 20 year sentence on each of the others. Justice Longley said the sentences were to run consecutively. Birbal maintains his innocence. The hearing begins at 10am at the Claughton House courtroom.