(Trinidad Express) A woman, who said she was beaten with an iron chair, yesterday thanked a relative for rescuing her from what she thought was certain death.
“If she hear this, tell she I love she… God bless she and thanks… She hear me bawling and she come down the hill to rescue me. Otherwise he might have murdered me right on the ground with that piece of iron chair,” the 58-year-old woman said.
The 20-year-old relative who severed the man’s left hand at the wrist remained in police custody last night.
The elder woman recalled Friday’s incident at her home at Oropouche South Trace, Barrackpore.
She was sitting to the back of the house around 3.30 p.m. when she had an argument with a 61-year-old man.
“He take the iron chair and start hitting me all on my back and my head. He hit me on my leg, all on my hip, he hit me with it… He hit me real bad I nearly freak out on the ground,” the petite woman said.
She was bleeding from a wound to her head and her younger relative, who arrived on the scene, told him to stop.
He began cursing her and also threatening to hit her with the chair, the woman said.
The relative retrieved the cutlass from inside the house and again told the man to stop before she swung the cutlass at him.
It severed his left hand.
He was also chopped twice on his right hand.
The police and ambulance officials were contacted, and both victims were taken to the San Fernando General Hospital.
The man, a sanitation worker, was warded while the 58-year-old was discharged.
When reporters visited yesterday, she was awaiting an ambulance to receive further medical attention.
She said she was concerned that her relative could be charged for the offence.
“I pleading with (the police) from my heart. I don’t want them to charge her for nothing because she innocent and (the man) is the faulted one and I find the police should not arrest she at all,” the woman said.
Another relative said she has known of the abuse for years.
“If she cooking and he find it taking too long, he would beat her,” the relative said.
None of the woman’s children live there because of the man’s behaviour.
She said the woman was beaten two years ago with a broom handle, rendered unconscious, and spent time in the hospital.
She took out a restraining order against the man.
The woman, who has been married for the past 40 years, said for most of that time she faced abuse.
The woman said she will leave the house, should the man return from the hospital.
A matter is pending before the court concerning abuse allegations, and the woman said he breached the restraining order by hitting her.
“We call the police (from the Barrackpore Police Station) a few times, and they come and they never do him nothing. They just sit down and talk to him, and they say how he under the influence of alcohol and they not carrying him down in the station,” she said.
She said in recent times, “I call them and they say they don’t have no vehicle to come, and them didn’t even come to see nothing.”
Southern Division Senior Superintendent Richard Smith, however, told the Sunday Express the police responded to the incidents.
He said he was informed by a senior officer at the station that reports were made and the woman requested that the man be warned.
“On several occasions officers responded… The request would be to warn him and that could be done. If she wants to press charges (on the alleged abuse) we can arrest him, once we have a statement. If she is not willing to and we have a family member or another witness who is willing to give a statement, yes, we could go in that direction as well, but we always need a statement from somebody who witnessed the incident.”
Smith added, “We are aware that persons would be afraid at times and there are provisions in law, under the Domestic Violence Act, for anybody to make a report on behalf of any victim. We accept statements from anybody who is willing to give that type of evidence.”
He said a person could also be arrested and prosecuted if an incident of abuse is viewed by the police.
“If it doesn’t happen within our view, then we need the support and the co-operation from the witness or the victim with regard to a statement. We have people making a lot of statements verbally and they not giving anything in writing,” he said.
He said enquiries continue with regard to the 20-year-old woman, who remained in police custody yesterday.
