A Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice woman who endured the most horrifying half hour of her life when she struggled with a cutlass-wielding man who tried to rape her two Sundays ago is finding it hard to overcome the ordeal.
Bademokie known as Glory Sahadeo, 55, was badly beaten and also sustained slashes from the cutlass and had to be treated at the Fort Wellington Hospital. Wounds on her forehead also had to be sutured.
She felt lucky though that she successfully managed to prevent the attacker, who appeared to be in his late 30s, from violating her.
Recalling the nightmare which occurred around 3 am, the woman said she had fallen asleep on a bed in the living room while watching television. She was terrified when she awoke to find the man standing over her with the raised cutlass.
Bademokie told Stabroek News that although the wounds have started to heal the memories are still fresh.
She said she was in a dazed state and thought that the dark figure “was a jumbie. Then I said a jumbie won’t have a cutlass.”
She started to scream loudly and he “choke meh neck… Then he cuff me on my forehead and head; he tried to black me out.”
In spite of all this she was determined not to give up. She kept holding on to the man’s hand with the cutlass as he pressed violently against her. Her neck and other parts of her body are still hurting badly. She begged him not to harm her and to “take whatever you want…” but he declared that that was not his intention of being in the house.
She nevertheless took off a gold ring she was wearing and gave it to him. She also took off another ring and threw it on the floor and when he went to pick it up she seized the opportunity to run into the bedroom at the back.
But the bolt in the room was not working. Afraid that her attacker might follow her, she “cuff the louvre window and break all the glasses.”
She then jumped out and stood on the small awning and hid there for about 20 minutes. When she felt sure that he had left she shouted for the neighbours.
They had already heard the commotion in the house but were too afraid to come out to assist her.
The man gained access to her house through a small opening that separates an extended section from the old part of her house.
She said the police conducted investigations and she was asked to identify the suspect whose towel-mask had fallen off during the ordeal.
However, when she went up to him at the station to identify him he behaved in a weird manner. She demonstrated that he put his hands up, opened his mouth and started to turn from side to side, apparently to disguise his identity.
She got confused and told the police that it looked like him “ninety-eight percent and the other two percent, I’m not sure…”
Bademokie hopes that no other woman has to suffer as she did because the man is still walking free.
