A security guard charged with the murder of another guard with whom he claimed he was having an affair for a year, has pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

Christopher Toussaint was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter on the basis of provocation, after a plea deal with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. An initial request to plead guilty to the lesser offence, back in 2021, was declined by the DPP.

Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas began with a 26-year sentence for Toussaint for killing Patricia Allison Duncan who was also known by the name, Allison Patricia Paton, on January 17, 2011.

Toussaint and Duncan worked as security guards with the same company and were both assigned to guard duties at the National Fisheries Ltd compound in Sea Lots.

After a two-year downward adjustment, the judge also gave Toussaint a one-third discount for his guilty plea and then deducted the 12 years, four months and nine days he spent in prison awaiting trial, leaving the convicted man with three years and seven months left to serve.

The court heard that on being arrested, Toussaint told police he and Duncan were having an affair for a year before he stabbed her after going to her home to find a half-naked man lying in her bed.

The evening before the stabbing, Toussaint went to work but was told he was too intoxicated and should take the night off. Toussaint told a co-worker he had a fight with his girlfriend.

He slept at the nearby fish market where another security guard saw him under a shed in an empty lot between the compound and the Beetham highway. Toussaint had a cutlass with him.

Toussaint later waited for Duncan to arrive and he then walked her to work.

He later told police that he left the compound only to return later and question Duncan about the half-naked man who was in her bed. An argument ensued and Toussaint pulled the cutlass from his waist. He told police that he chopped her on the neck after she told him, “Dat is it, de relationship done dey.”

Toussaint was seen with the cutlass by other workers on the compound and was also seen with Duncan minutes before she was chopped. She identified him as the person who had attacked her, before being taken to hospital where she subsequently died.

After the attack, Toussaint walked out of the compound before an alert was raised that he should not leave. He was seen holding the cutlass and walking towards the highway when another guard tried to stop him. That guard later flagged down two police officers who were near the Citrus Growers Association compound on the Eastern Main Road, Laventille. He told the police what had happened.

Toussaint was found hiding under the flyover entering Port of Spain. He was told to drop the cutlass and lie on the ground. He was arrested and taken to the Besson Street police station. The cutlass was secured by the officers.

At the station, Toussaint told officers he was taking full responsibility for chopping Duncan.

He also identified the weapon saying, “Yes dat is the cutlass ah used,