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Hacked on both legs over five months ago, Carlotta Stephens is now a bed-bound invalid in her room; still unable to walk and living in dread that the man who tried to kill her may return to finish the job.Carlotta Stephens is one of several individuals who have been victims of brutal domestic attacks, and whose assailants remain on the run, sometimes even taunting or threatening the victims and their families.Murdered: Shanta Devi ChanderpaulCARLOTTA’S STORYOn June 3, Stephens, a 43-year-old former Supernumerary Constable, was washing linen in the family’s backyard in Perry Street, Tucville, when her estranged reputed husband, sneaked up behind her and began to chop her on the legs. Ms. Stephens recalled that the suspect opened a deep wound on her upper left thigh and deliberately chopped her again on the open wound.She remembered trying to ward off a chop that was aimed at her neck and suffering a deep cutlass wound to her right hand.Her assailant fled after a few young men in the area saw the attack and raised an alarm.Hearing the commotion, her sister, Jackie, Stephens, said she looked outside and saw the suspect, Percy Harris, known as ‘Chicken’, fleeing north up Perry Street with cutlass in hand. She then heard somebody groaning and calling her name.Going to the back door, the sister saw Carlotta lying in a pool of blood with wounds to her legs.“I ask ‘is who do this’, and she say ‘is Chicken.’”The sister wrapped her bleeding sibling in towels and tarpaulins and took her by taxi to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. She had to receive over four litres of blood. Her right leg was placed in a cast, while metal rods were inserted in the other leg.The cast was only removed about a week ago. She’s to return to the hospital today to have the leg examined, but she’s reportedly already been told that she will not be able to start rehabilitation therapy until next year.That brutal attack came as no surprise to some of her family. It was just the last of many other vicious acts that Carlotta Stephens endured over several years at the hands of the man with whom she has two children.Mulchand Murilall, stabbed to death while protecting his sister from an abusive manShe was previously attacked with an ice-pick, a meat-hook and ‘Rambo’ knife. After these fits of rage, her reputed husband “would come and beg pardon,” Stephens said.Her mother recalls the suspect smashing her window and dragging her daughter down the stairs several years ago. He was charged, and sentenced to three months imprisonment,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, but failed to turn up for sentencing.In February 2003, Ms. Stephens was dressed in her police uniform and heading to work when the man emerged from some bushes and slashed her on the ear with a knife.According to the family, he was charged with malicious wounding and placed on $10,000 bail.That case, they claimed, dragged on for about two years. Carlotta Stephens said that she never knew the outcome of the matter since she was unable to attend court in the final stages, owing to the fact that she had a baby.And as in the previous cases, Ms. Stephens’ vicious reputed husband is still at large, and has even been contacting them by phone.“He say he want to talk to me, and the last time he call he ask me how my foot coming round.”The accused has been spotted in Plum Park Sophia, in Barr Street, Kitty and near the Bourda Market.He’s short in stature, brown in complexion, has short dreadlocks and is unable to use his right hand, owing to an old wound.Four chopped in one nightEven members of the legal profession are not immune from domestic violence that leaves the victims living in daily fear. Attorney-at-Law Wanda Fortune found this out three months ago, when a seething family dispute between her stepfather, Shawn Fordyce, and her mother, Dorothy Blackman-Fordyce,Cheap NHL Jerseys, erupted in bloodshed.At around 21:00 hrs on Thursday, August 1, 2013,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, ‘D’ Field Sophia resident Dorothy Blackman-Fordyce indicated that she was going out with another female relative. However, she reportedly changed her mind after her husband objected.Carlotta Stephens in the GPHC shortly after the attackMs. Fordyce then left to buy a phone card. According to relatives, believing that his spouse was still going out, Shawn Fordyce, an ex-policeman, reportedly threw a handful of muddy water on her. Latoya Wilson,Wholesale Baseball Jerseys 2018, one of the man’s step-children pleaded with the man to stop, which he did. But Fordyce, it is alleged, then ran inside the house, picked up a cutlass and chopped his wife and step-daughters Attorney-at-Law Wanda Fortune; Latoya Wilson, 20; and 12-year-old Donette Fordyce. The attack reportedly only ceased when the suspect’s cutlass slipped from his hands.Three months after the near-deadly attack, Fordyce has somehow managed to avoid capture.“Everyone is on edge; he’s still out there (and) the children are still traumatized,” Mrs. Fortune told Kaieteur News recently.“It does not seem as if the police are keen to arrest anyone. There were positive sightings of him and the police from Berbice say that they have to get word from Georgetown (to arrest the suspect), and Georgetown would say that they radioed for him to be arrested.”Ms. Fortune believes that some of her stepfather’s relatives are assisting him, a claim that relatives of the fugitive have repeatedly denied. She says he has connections in Paradise, West Coast Berbice; Guyhoc Park; Sophia, both B and D Field; D’Urban Street and Middle Road, La Penitence.The attorney is convinced that her stepfather meant to kill them, and that they will all be in danger as long as he remains on the run.A police bulletin described Shawn Fordyce as being dark in complexion and of medium build. His last known addresses are Lot 132 ‘D’ Field Sophia, East Coast Demerara and Paradise Village, West Coast Berbice.Trials of a peace-loving manUnlike Shawn Fordyce, ‘C’ Field, Sophia resident Clarence De Florimonte is a peace-loving man. But the same could not be said about the man with whom his reputed wife, Shanta Devi Chanderpaul, was having an affair.WHY ME? A bedridden Carlotta Stephens at homeThe other man in Shanta Chanderpaul’s life lived a short distance from the home in which she lived with her reputed husband and seven children.Violent and extremely possessive, the lover constantly beat Chanderpaul and even stabbed her once, while also injuring her hapless reputed husband. Despite this ill treatment,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, Chanderpaul refused to sever the relationship, and reportedly even sided with the lover against one of her sons in an assault matter in court.That affair ended tragically. Late last October, the 36-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter had just exited a bus in ‘C’ Field, Sophia at around 19:00 hrs, when the suspect, who was armed with a knife, ran out of a shop and confronted her mother.According to the daughter, the man said, ‘Look how long I want jook yuh and kill yuh’. He then stabbed her mother in the chest and abdomen, slashed her face and then fled.Chanderpaul was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s Intensive Care Unit. She took her own discharge last Sunday, but was readmitted after her condition worsened. She succumbed last Thursday.The suspect, identified as Ricardo Van Sertima, remains at large. Meanwhile, peace-loving Clarence De Florimonte has taken the unusual step of leaving the family’s ‘C’ Field, Sophia home, since he fears that the fugitive would try to harm him and his children. He has also taken his 13-year-old daughter, who witnessed the attack on her mother, to a safer location.“Right now I can’t sleep in my house. This man is at death’s door (is desperate) and he would harm my family,” Mr. De Florimonte told Kaieteur News. According to Mr. De Florimonte, he will only return home when the alleged killer is apprehended.The suspect has reportedly been spotted in Sophia and is said to have even contacted some of the slain woman’s relatives.Recently released police statistics show that there were 16 domestic related murders last October. Sadly, the toll has risen since then.Last Friday, 16-year-old Mulchand Murilall was stabbed to death at Cane Grove, Mahaica, while trying to protect his sister from a man, with whom she had recently severed a relationship.The suspect,Jerseys NFL Cheap, who was captured at Springlands, had been remanded to prison for allegedly assaulting Murilall’s sister and was only released from prison last Thursday.Then on Saturday, 55-year-old Vinod Narine consumed a mixture of rat poison and gramaxone after burning down his wife’s Lot 85 Industry, East Coast Demerara house.Members of social organizations and other individuals have expressed alarm at the apparent surge in domestic violence. One well-known female community leader called for the setting up of more organizations that would allow men to speak about their frustrations and enable them to be counseled.She also appealed for couples to learn to sit down and discuss their differences. |
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