Man wounded in attempt to attack estranged partner

A man who had threatened to kill the mother of his two children was wounded when he broke into her Number 4 Village, West Coast Berbice home yesterday, while he in turn wounded another man who managed to overpower him.

Police who were summoned to the scene rushed Odit Thom, 35, of Number 5 Village and Tavid Hamer, 18, called Kevin of Number 4 Village to the Fort Wellington Hospital (FWH) where they were treated and transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital. This newspaper understands that both men underwent surgery for their wounds.

According to reports, Thom broke into the home of his estranged partner Belinda Bourne, 23, armed with two cutlasses just before 1 am yesterday. Hamer, who tried to prevent him, was chopped.

Though injured, Hamer wrestled with Thom inside the house and managed to disarm him. Thom was chopped in the process.

As this was taking place, Bourne’s older sister, Coretta Pierre contacted the police. By the time they arrived a while later, both men were lying helpless and bleeding from their wounds.

Pierre told Stabroek News that they had received information on Thursday afternoon that Thom, who had been on the run after stabbing Bourne on Tuesday, had left Georgetown with a cutlass.

He had threatened to kill Bourne and the others in the house: their two children, aged one and six years old; her mother, Pamela Sibdhannie; Pierre and another sister, Elma.

Fearing for their lives, they made a report at the Fort Wellington Police Station and left a photo of Thom with the police.

Pierre said Hamer and another friend offered to “stay with us because they know it was only females in the house.”

She recalled that around 1 am yesterday, she heard a sound as though someone was trying to break in from the veranda door. She alerted Elma who checked but saw no one.

The noise continued and at this point Hamer went to investigate. He was confronted by Thom and was chopped to his forehead, hand, shoulder and thumb. Thom was later chopped to his face, toe and other parts of his body.

Recounting when her sister was stabbed, Pierre said the man was standing on the road in front of their home when a cousin who was also on the road called Bourne downstairs.

She refused out of fear but the cousin insisted that she should come down because she needed to talk to her. She said Bourne went down and was standing near the doorway when the cousin suggested they “go to the back…” of the yard.

It was then that Thom rushed through the gate. Bourne saw him and tried to run but he caught up with her almost halfway up the stairs and stabbed her in the lower back and under the left arm and then ran off.

Sibdhannie told this newspaper that she ran out of the yard behind the man but retreated after he aimed the knife at her.

She said he ran through an alleyway and towards the backlands while the cousin had calmly walked out of the yard. Bourne was rushed to the FWH and was discharged the same day.

According to Pierre, her sister had lived with the man at Number 5 Village and then together with her family at Number 4 Village.

Two months ago she ended the relationship because she was tired of the man’s abusive behaviour. He had subsequently threatened her while she was at church.