One charged with attempted murder
An 18-year-old university student from Berbice narrowly escaped being raped and murdered by two attackers last week but has lost her thumb in the process. One man has since been charged with attempted murder.
The incident, which occurred around 8:30 pm as the student was returning home from a stationery store at Port Mourant, Corentyne has left her deeply traumatized. The teen received seven stitches to her head and 43 to her hand.
One of the alleged attackers, Devindra Thomas of Swamp Section, Rose Hall Town, said to be in his late teens, was charged with attempted murder at the Whim Court on Monday. He was not required to plead and was refused bail. Magistrate Chandra Sohan adjourned the matter for September 30.
Thomas was captured during a search a few hours after the incident while his accomplice is still at large. The two pounced on her and one started to touch her buttocks. In retaliation, she shouted, “What is wrong with you? Go along your bloody way!”
At this stage one jumped off a bicycle they were riding and said “you can’t talk to me like that, me a gangster.” She told Stabroek News that the next thing she knew one of the attackers grabbed her by the neck and “tried to wring it backwards to break it.”
She said she “tried to scream but no sound came out” as she struggled to break loose. Meanwhile the other attacker was grabbing at other parts of her body. She eventually managed to free herself from the grip and started to scream.
She said that by this time the attackers pulled out a cutlass and fired a chop to her head. They fired a second chop but this time she managed to “block the chop” with her left hand causing her thumb and index finger to be severed.
The student said she screamed and ran towards the stationery store while the man continued firing chops which narrowly missed the back of her neck.
She was rushed to the New Amsterdam hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. She was admitted to the institution for five days and plans to seek further treatment in Georgetown.
Efforts by the doctors to save her thumb proved futile. Another surgery was subsequently performed successfully to allow her other fingers to function normally.
She told this newspaper that robbery was not the motive as the attackers did not remove her Motorola A1200 cellular phone, cash and a gold ring she had in her possession.
This is a young lady they were trying to rape , i don’t want to imagine what else these so called gangsters doing out there now that the police got one and i hope they take note that they claimed they are gangsters , they should not be tried in court for no reason , they should be buried and casted far away where no one can see them only there heads out. Poor woman was struggling to save her life , which she did .
I hope they rot and die in Jail. Gangster?
It is such a shame. My heart goes out to this student. These guys should made to work and pay back for a big part of their lives. I hope this young lady can pick up and go-on even thought it will be hard.
These guys from Port Mourant should be threated just like the ones from Linden….plenty jail. No work to payback and compensate victim. Why for some people this is all that matters? Some people can commit a crime and pay compensation and others go to jail? Gansters? These guys are all aminals.
And it tells of the hopelessness of some of our young men in some rural communities. It cuts across racial and ethnic divide. Our young men are clueless of what is right and what is wrong, there are no role models for them. They see drug runners getting rich and becoming influencial in society, they see government workers stealing and getting rich and nothing happens to them, they see ministers of government being accused of gun play, assault of under aged girls and nothing happens, they see ministers of government and key party supporters doing wrong and they are given pats on the back. The obvious question they would ask themselves is; so why not me, this seems to be OK.
It is time for us to seriously consider re-instating the cat-o-nine tail as punishment for these lower than animal creatures, in this era of HIV and other serious STD’s women must be protected from these wicked beasts, who is going to say our prison system has the capability to reform these ‘gangsters’ .
The present soft touch prison system and reform techniques we have adopted from the more developed (read RICH) countries are out of sync, with any nation impatient to develop itself.
It’s time to revisit honestly the benefits and cheap expenditure for the implementation and possible integration (even on a trial basis) of the cat-o-nine tail, versus the cost to feed, clothe, house and breed these gangsters. Why must we tolerate them in our midst? Why?
That is one ugly incedent, I do hope councling is adminstered to the vicitim… As for the convicte ‘gansta’ its about to touch down to your nitty gritty.
They should not be let off easily! this young woman is left traumatized for the rest of her life with a physical reminder! jail these suckers!
What ? Jail those suckers! These animals are predators, and what you do to predators, I ask.This young woman is a university student who is working hard to do her parents, herself, her community and her country proud. In the prime in her life she made to suffer such a traumatizing ordeal at the hands of these savages,and you are taking about jail those suckers, thus wasting taxpayers money. I am not advocating voilence. What these savages did to this girl is voilence,and if we do not speak out against it would be condoning voilence.
I know my friend John Smith will disagree with me on this but I will say whats on my mind anyway…….If he is the right person that is charged:::And it was two of them…..He should be squeezed so hard to call the name of his acomplice…Mind you I didnt say (Torture)….Covering up for acomplices is sometimes worse than the crime itself….The other one is out there somewhere….Who knows when he will bring his other friends to finish the job they started on this young lady…Trying to silence the victim is serious business….I wonder when the justice system will see it no other way….Having said that….I wish this young lady a speedy recovery and hope she get the much needed help she so deserves from this life time truama…Get the other one and let these two never see light of day ever again in their life…..
Evil, I read this article and I am still trying to dissipate the anger that is boiling in me. I just hope that they are dealt with by the law, MAXIMUM penalty. Find them, try them, jail them. Let see how gangster they are when they meet with those harden criminals in jail.
Evil you did not say torture but you meant it and you would not say a word if that is used to extricate information.
justice must be done for this young lady my heart goes out to her i wish for u to recover and move on i know it will be hard but don’t let these bastards ruin your life. I hope the police officers would do what ever it takes.
I’m so upset,and angry that i can’t understand why is it these kind of behaviors are still happening, this young lady was almost raped and could have been killed, these perps should face the full force of the law.
I would like to congratulate her for her bravery under the circumstances and I pray that she recovers from her injuries and in particular, from her trauma which will seem to be like a recurring decimal for a quite a long time.
Not only does the victim suffer trauma but also her relatives. Both the victim and her immediate family will need to be comforted.
The resolve here is not about a financial settlement from the attacker(s) out of or in court. Justice must be served in the harshest of ways.
The temptation of the relatives of any rape and attempted murder victim to maim, disfigure or kill the attacker(s) will be taking God’s Vengeance from Him. He has inexplicable Ways that we do not understand.
Guyanese should remember what God did to Sodom and Gomarrah. We have been chastised already with a serious flood in 2005 for “playing Church”.