As a High Court judge sentenced two men to seven years and eight months in prison for killing mechanic Nigel Allen, she suggested the authorities take up the prisoners’ offer to assist in bringing the people who hired them to justice.
Allen’s relatives, who left the San Fernando High Court disappointed as they wanted prisoners Nigel “Cat” Roderique, 41, and Wendell “Piper” Simmons, 34, to get life sentences, also expressed a desire to see the other people involved in Allen’s abduction and murder brought to justice.
After sentencing both men who pleaded guilty in April to murder based on the murder felony rule, Justice Maria Wilson said: “I would hope that the authorities will take up the offer of both prisoners to further the investigation into this matter to find out who else was involved in this matter. Both are willing to assist and I think the offer should be taken up by the Director of Public Prosecutions office and the police.”
Roderique, a father of five, who is a state witness in another capital offence, and Simmons told the judge at the last court hearing they were willing to turn state witnesses and help the police arrest the “stars” and the “real perpetrators” in this matter to justice.
Allen, 32, of Simpson Brown Terrace, Cocoyea Village, San Fernando, went missing on December 7, 2005. Police found Allen’s car abandoned in Claxton Bay the following day while his decomposing body was discovered by police in a shallow grave in Diamond Village, Claxton Bay, 12 days later.
The prisoners, in a confession statement, claimed another man referred to as “S” had locked Allen’s neck and placed a handkerchief in his mouth. The prisoners said they thought Allen, who had been struggling, was dead because he went silent. Roderique admitted he then stabbed Allen in the abdomen with a fork to prevent his body from expanding during decomposition.
The men then buried Allen. The judge said an appropriate sentence was 29 years, but after considering the aggravating and mitigating factors she reduced the starting point to 27 years. She then deducted one third of the sentence for their guilty pleas, reducing the term to 18 years. The judge further reduced the sentence after subtracting the ten years, three months and 19 days they were in custody awaiting trial.
Allen’s eldest brother Gerard Allen, said time: “We are not pleased, we wanted life because they took life. My grandmother, who is 94 years old, said the law is an ass and I believe she is correct.”
Agreeing with the judge’s remarks about the DPP and the police taking up the prisoners’ office, Allen also questioned who was the person referred to as S and why he was never brought to justice. “I want to know if Cat can still see himself stabbing him (Nigel Allen) with the fork because I could see him lying on the slate (at the Forensic Science Centre).”