The Appeal Court this afternoon reduced the jail sentences handed down to the mother and stepfather convicted of murdering their daughter Neesa Gopaul to 45 years each.

The 16-year-old Queens College student was brutally murdered and her body dumped in 2010.

Five years later in 2015, the mother Bibi Gopaul and stepfather, Barry Small were convicted of the murder. The mother was originally sentenced to 106 years in jail while the stepfather was sentenced to 96 years in jail.

The West Demerara couple appealed the conviction and sentences. The Court upheld the convictions but reduced the sentences to 45 years in jail each.

The Court found that the original sentences handed down by Justice Navindra Singh were excessive, hence the decision to reduce them.

The two convicts will not get any shot at parole and will have to serve out the full 45-year sentence.

The disappearance and murder of the teenage girl gripped the nation just over a decade ago. Her body was later found stuffed in a suitcase at a creek along the Linden Soesdyke Highway.

It was suspected that the girl was murdered by the two because she reportedly knew that they were also responsible for the poisoning death of the mother’s previous husband.

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