Police are still hunting the man who attacked and stabbed Vanessa Francis on Wednesday night and she remains uneasy while the search continues.
Francis, who was treated at hospital and is now at home, said the feeling will not go away until her ex-husband is in custody. The man has been stalking her since their separation five months ago and he attempted to kill her on Wednesday night at Nabaclis, minutes after she entered a taxi.
East Coast Commander Gavin Primo said yesterday that law enforcement officers in the Division are pursing Francis’s ex-husband, who attacked her. He said the case is receiving the necessary attention. Primo acknowledged that Francis has reports on file and that he was also aware of the matters currently before the courts. Questioned on whether police effectively followed-up on the reports, he said they are aware of Francis’ situation, while adding that action was taken resulting in the man being charged recently.
Pressed on what the police are doing now based on the attack, he said, “we are pursuing the attacker.” He said the Division has a string of cases to pursue every day, but that adequate attention is being paid to Francis’ case.
On Wednesday, Francis had just entered a taxi when the man confronted her. He tried to drag her from the front seat of the car while stabbing her continuously. The man ran and left Francis lying in the taxi after her screaming stopped. She sustained injuries to her upper body, legs and arms.
As a result of the attack, Francis wants greater assurance from the authorities that her attacker is being pursued. She said law enforcement officials have to cooperate to capture the man because he is often in the city hanging out at a few known spots. She has since relayed this information to the police.
The authorities at Cove and John Police Station were unhappy with Francis’ story being in the press, but she told this newspaper yesterday that “it is a matter of life and death.” She said it is not an issue of whether the police look bad, but whether she survives another day.
The woman said that since she left her reputed husband he has been tormenting her. She was forced to ask her employers at President’s College to allow her to leave work while the place is still bright because she is afraid to walk at night. The man has also made her invest in taxis as a mode of transportation, which has put a strain on her finances. “I can’t walk at all. If I do, my family have to be there with me, but most times I travel in a taxi because he is always around,” she related yesterday. Fear consumes her and she has watched it also take over her daughter. The couple have one daughter who told Stabroek News that she is afraid to answer her phone whenever her mother’s number shows up. “When I see her number I am so afraid because I don’t know what news I am going to get. What my father is doing to my mother is not easy and it is has not been easy on me either,” Kaiesha related to this newspaper.
Francis said the relationship ended last September, when the man beat her severely and took away her gold jewellery. She decided to call it quits and has been living in fear ever since because he keeps calling her at home and showing up at night.
In October last year, he broke into the home and was lying in wait for her, but another person who was in the home at the time scared him off. Francis said that he visited her home in December with a cutlass in hand and said he was going to kill her. She reported the matter and the police went to his home and detained him. But he was subsequently released.
She recalled that on Old Year’s Day, he was lurking outside a home where she attended a party and she was forced to ask an officer who was around to follow her home. Francis said her ex-husband has declared that if he cannot have her, “no other man could have her.” She said that he often calls her home and talks about how domestic violence is on the rise, but that it carries light sentences. “He told me how it not 40 years and so people does get for those crimes,” she recounted.
Francis had approached Red Thread for help and when Stabroek News contacted the organization yesterday, Coordinator Karen DeSouza said Francis’ case has been engaging their attention. She said that Red Thread employees have accompanied Francis to court and that they have made representations on her behalf at the level of the Commander on the East Coast.
DeSouza lamented that Francis is unfortunately one of many women living in fear in similar situations. She said the police have a responsibility to look into the case and provide Francis with relief from her torment. She said Red Thread has advised Francis to take out a restraining order, but she noted that the woman has been going through a lot recently.
