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A man from Fyz­abad, who dis­guised him­self in a niqab – a face cov­er­ing worn by some Mus­lim women – to kill the moth­er of his young child in 2020, has been sen­tenced to 18 years in prison.

Vishal “Cousin” Bir­ju, of Pep­per Vil­lage, Fyz­abad, was await­ing tri­al for mur­der­ing 28-year-old Gabriel­la Dubar­ry be­fore he was re­cent­ly al­lowed to plead guilty to the less­er of­fence of manslaugh­ter by provo­ca­tion based on a plea agree­ment with the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP).

In de­cid­ing on the ap­pro­pri­ate sen­tence for Bir­ju this week, Jus­tice Trevor Jones ac­cept­ed the 28-year start­ing point that was agreed to by pros­e­cu­tors and Bir­ju’s lawyers, Michelle Ali and Shuzvon Ram­dass, of the Pub­lic De­fend­ers’ De­part­ment (PDD).