Battered ex-jockey says he is being targeted by family

A former jockey fears for his life after he was soundly beaten by several members of a family that he once rode for on Monday afternoon.

According to Randolph Jainarine, 31, he was attacked as he was walking home from work at Good Hope, East Coast of Demerara (ECD), around 5:30pm.

Randolph Jainarine

His young assailant, a popular long distance athlete, he said, stopped him, accused him of having a 14-year old relationship with his mother and began verbally abusing him.

Soon after, Jainarine explained, two cars pulled up with the athlete’s siblings and their father, who then attacked him with cutlasses and pieces of wood. “They just started to beat me all over as I lie down there,” the man recounted, adding that during the ordeal, which lasted about 15 minutes, the older man pulled out a baton belonging to one of his sons and beat him about his body, including his feet, abdomen and head.

According to his sister, Jainarine was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital in a semi-conscious state following the attack. According to her, she is afraid that the men may further harm him. “They saying that they will burn down we house and the big man seh that it ain’t done yet,” the woman, who asked not to be identified, stated, while noting that a report was made to the Vigilance Police Station and the police arrested one of the men but he was released soon after. “We hope the police do something because we as a family cannot live in peace,” she said.

“They  mean fuh kill he because he get beat all over, even he head got a big cut and he had to get five stitches,” she added, saying that Monday’s attack, which took place about seven houses away from their home, was bound to happen.

Her brother, she said, has been targeted by the family since he stopped attending to their horses. In addition to grooming the horses, she said Jainarine rode at popular race meets across the country, having worked with the family since he was teenager. She explained that he, however, decided to quit since the patriarch of the family started to accuse him of having an affair with his wife. “The man use to accuse him of sleeping with he wife. You mean my brother as a teenager? Wah he want with a big woman?” she asked.

Over the years, she added, the man and his sons would threaten to harm Jainarine and often ventured over from nearby Lusignan, where they live, to issue the threats.

Jainarine has been off the racing circuit after he suffered a fall several years ago that left him hospitalised. He sustained head injuries while his right eye has since been impaired. The father of one currently works as a carpenter.