The London-based Privy Council upheld an appeal by...

The London-based Privy Council upheld an appeal by Bimal Roy Paria, a 29-year-old man in Trinidad and Tobago, who had been sentenced to death for killing his common law wife, her mother and sister on 24 July 1998. The Privy Council overturned all three death sentences against Paria and ordered the Court of Appeal in Trinidad to impose the appropriate sentence for manslaughter. The Law Lords allowed the appeal on the grounds that Paria's good character was not put before the jury at the time of his trial. Paria was originally found guilty by a High Court in Trinidad in July 2000 and his appeal was dismissed in January 2001. In its written ruling, the Privy Council said: "It is important to notice that the Court of Appeal characterized the major issue in the case as being whether, when he killed the three women, the appellant was out of control as a result of provocation to which he had been subjected. The relevance of the evidence of good character therefore was that it would suggest that the appellant was unlikely to have committed such barbaric acts unless he had lost his self-control."