Former T&T beauty queen fighting for life after attack

(Trinidad Express) Former beauty queen Candice Worrel is fighting for her life after being savagely beaten and robbed outside her workplace late last month.

As Worrel remains unconscious in hospital, her fiancee, W Connection Football Club captain Jan-Michael Williams was yesterday critical of the Chaguanas police for their failure to get crime in that district under control.

Candice Worrel
Candice Worrel

Worrel, a health and safety officer, was robbed and beaten at her John Street, Chaguanas workplace on January 20.

Williams said yesterday his fiancee—and the mother of his ten-month-old daughter—had forgotten her cellphone at her workplace and went to downtown Chaguanas to get a taxi to their Couva home.

When Worrel found that Chaguanas was congested with traffic and that transportation was difficult to get at that time, she decided to return to her office and retrieve the phone.

She was found lying in a corridor at her workplace sometime later by a nearby resident, who went to investigate a strange noise.

Her wallet and cellphone were missing. Worrel, who was left with a broken jaw and shattered cheekbone after the attack, is still considered to be in a critical condition and is being treated at the St Clair Medical Centre.

She turns 29 on Wednesday. Though subdued as he spoke to the Sunday Express by telephone yesterday, Williams said Chaguanas police have long been aware of the high incidence of crimes plaguing the streets on the outskirts of the Chaguanas Main Road.

“The Chaguanas police know about a lot of incidents of these types but they are doing nothing about it,” said Williams, who is also the football club’s goalkeeper.

“This kind of crime has been happening a lot in that area and they are aware of it.”

Although Worrel has remained unconscious since the attack, Williams said he has guessed that she may have resisted her attackers, prompting the beating.

“I know Candice and she is not the type who just take it,” Williams said. “I am sure she tried to fight back.”

Worrel represented this country at the 2009 Miss Tourism Queen International in China and is a fashion model.