Geisha Kow­lessar

Head of the Vic­tims and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit of the Po­lice Ser­vice Mar­garet Samp­son-Browne yes­ter­day told a har­row­ing sto­ry of a young house­wife and moth­er who was sub­ject­ed to such ex­treme do­mes­tic vi­o­lence by her hus­band, that she even had to ask him per­mis­sion leave to the bath­room.The woman, who lived in south Trinidad, was re­cent­ly res­cued by the po­lice, she said.

Samp­son-Brown was speak­ing at the launch of a pro­gramme ti­tled In­te­grat­ing Gen­der-based Vi­o­lence Ser­vices with Sex­u­al and Re­pro­duc­tive Health Ser­vices for Young Peo­ple, at the Hy­att Re­gency, Port-of-Spain.The for­mer as­sis­tant com­mis­sion­er said some­how, the po­lice found the woman and "lit­er­al­ly res­cued her through the back door."

"The vic­tim in this case...she was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a se­vere do­mes­tic vi­o­lence sit­u­a­tion. So se­vere that she has to even ask per­mis­sion to come from the bath­room of her house to come in­to the liv­ing room," Samp­son-Browne told the fo­rum."She is in prison be­cause she can­not even speak to her loved ones or her friends. If she speaks it is when the per­pe­tra­tor is out of hear­ing or sight and she has to delete the num­ber on the phone be­cause when he comes back he will check it."

"Af­ter years and years of abuse we were able to re­move that woman from the home...we had to ac­tu­al­ly pass her through a back door."In re­sponse to the woman's ac­tions, the per­pe­tra­tor went to the mag­is­trate's court and ap­plied for ac­cess to his chil­dren. The woman, who is in her 30s and who Browne said "has been mar­ried for a long time," is now in a safe house.She added, how­ev­er, that the per­pe­tra­tor had the in­ten­tion of get­ting back at the woman.

"And we know that all he wants is to draw her out in the open, be­cause it is the first time in his life that he is los­ing con­trol and she is say­ing to him, 'I have had enough.'"She was so scared that she can't even come to the court to ap­ply for a pro­tec­tion or­der. We ap­plied for a pro­tec­tion or­der on her be­half. So when he be­lieves she is com­ing to court to get ac­cess, she is com­ing to court to tell the mag­is­trate she does not want him in her life," Samp­son-Browne added.

She said it was on­ly be­cause there were ded­i­cat­ed peo­ple work­ing with the vic­tim that she could now en­joy sleep.To save lives, Samp­son-Browne said, some­times re­quired out-of-the box think­ing, even on the part of the po­lice."Women and chil­dren are dy­ing at the hands of per­pe­tra­tors who pur­port to love them," she said.

She said so far this year, nine women had lost their lives to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. She said last year, 2,013 vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence sought the help of the unit, while 200 vic­tims had al­ready sought their sup­port so far this year.Samp­son-Browne said the unit was now prepar­ing to go on an ed­u­ca­tion dri­ve to get the pub­lic on board.

Al­so speak­ing at the fo­rum, Roger McLean, first vice-pres­i­dent of the Fam­i­ly Plan­ning As­so­ci­a­tion (FPA), said one in three women in T&T suf­fered some form of do­mes­tic abuse, in­clud­ing be­ing beat­en and co­erced in­to sex.