The three men who were last week convicted for the armed robbery and battery of Land Court Judge, Nicola Pierre and her husband, will each spend the next 16 years in prison.

The punishment, which some relatives consider to be too harsh, was ordered by the presiding Magistrate despite the men maintaining that they were innocent and begged for leniency.

The sentence was handed down on Thursday by Magistrate Zamilla Ally-Seepaul at the Sparendam Magistrates’ Court.

Five persons were initially charged for the crime but two of them were found not guilty.

Those found guilty and sentenced are 22-year-old Damion Millington, 18-year-old Nicholas Narine and 22-year-old Warren Mckenzie.

The three were found guilty of two counts of robbery under arms and two counts of felonious wounding committed on Land Court Judge Nicole Pierre and her husband, Mohamed Chand.

They were sentenced to four years on each charge.

The Magistrate ordered that the time in prison be served consecutively. She explained that the decision was taken because of the injuries suffered by the victims, the fact that a firearm was used and because of the value of the stolen items.

The family was robbed of several gold rings, diamond jewellery, a clump of gold, and a quantity of gem stones, among other items, totaling several million dollars. Some of the items were retrieved.

The Judge suffered a fractured jaw while her husband had to have an eye removed due to the severity of the beating he endured.

The men had tied up the Judge’s security guard and entered the home through a small window soon after the couple had retired to bed on the night of July 9, 2015.

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