Attorney Jiriam Mangra will represent a convicted child molester when he returns to court for his appeal next month.

Andre Birbal appeared in the Court of Appeal (COA) yesterday after firing his last attorney, Craig Butler in April.

The scene was similar in the Charlotte Street court yesterday because once proceedings began Mr. Mangra initially told the court that the appellant did not want his representation.

“I was under the impression that my lawyer was Tonique Lewis from Munroe and Associates,” Birbal told the panel.

COA President Justice Anita Allen asked Birbal what he wanted the court to do.

“The case is a complex one,” he said. “I am now in a peculiar situation.”

Justice Allen told Birbal that he put himself in the peculiar situation.

“This is the second time that we have been in this position,” she said. “Are you prepared to represent yourself?”

Birbal then agreed to have Mr. Mangra represent him.

“I’m unable to do it myself,” he said. “I wish to reconsider and give Mangra an opportunity as my attorney.”

Mr. Mangra told the panel that he did not have a problem representing Mangra as long as he was willing to listen to the advice that he gave him.

Last year, Birbal was convicted of having unnatural sexual intercourse with two of his former male students at the Eight Mile Rock High School.

On January 26, 2011, 49-year-old Birbal was found guilty of all five counts relating to the first male student.
Police said he had sex with the student between January 2002 and June 2007.
The jury returned guilty verdicts of 6-3 on counts one, two and three, and a 7-2 guilty verdict on counts four and five.

In relation to the second male student, Birbal, who had sex with the student between September 2002 and December 2005, was found guilty on one of three counts.
The jury found the teacher not guilty by a vote of 5-4 on count six and seven, but found him guilty by a vote of 7-2 on count eight.

Birbal, a Trinidadian, was employed as an art teacher at the Eight Mile Rock High School for 18 years, before resigning in 2009, after the allegations surfaced.

He taught one of the boys for five years, and the second one for six weeks.

The matter is now set for June 7 at 10:00 a.m.