Yesterday, Guardian Media’s Investigations Desk highlighted the increasing trends of domestic violence cases and sexual violence cases against children.
While some perpetrators have been arrested there is a low prosecution rate even as more women seek protection orders from the court.
For the families left behind, it takes years to get justice and life can never be normal again.
Long wait for justice
On July 21, 2011, Selvon Reyes’ two young sons and estranged wife Vonetta Haynes-Reyes were brutally murdered at their Plumbago Avenue, La Horquetta home.
The killings sparked outrage on social media, rocked the peaceful community and brought Reyes to his knees.
Thirteen years after the murders, Reyes, 49, continues to ask what his sons—eight-year-old Malik and Makasi, five, had done to deserve such horrible deaths.
“That is the hurtful part about it. Why the kids?”
Still trying to come to terms with the loss more than a decade later, Reyes said he has asked God to forgive the killer.
The necks of Malik and Makasi were slit while their 31-year-old mother died as a result of a stab wound to the neck.
Haynes-Reyes’ car, which was reported missing on the day of the murders, was located in Carapo a few days later.
Based on the pattern of blood on the bedroom floor, Reyes was told by investigators that Malik fought with the killer before losing his life.
“I can’t imagine what he went through,” Reyes said, as he tried hard to hold back his tears.
He said Makasi was asleep when his throat was slashed.
Days after the killings, the police arrested and charged 23-year-old Ancil Richards, the mother’s neighbour, with the murders.
Malik and Makasi were Reyes’ pride and joy.
He shared an unbreakable bond with his sons.
“They were my everything. I still can’t believe they are gone.”
To this day, Reyes still grieves.
Reyes was at his San Juan workplace when a friend called him to say that his sons and their mother were murdered.
“I took it for a joke,” Reyes recalled.
Minutes later, Reyes said a family member informed him of the bad news.
“Then it hit me...I started to bawl for my kids. My whole inside started to feel hollow. I kept saying that could never happen to me.”
Although Reyes had been separated from Haynes-Reyes for years, his sons visited his Oropune home regularly.
The day before the murders, Reyes remembered his boys begging to spend the night with him.
Reyes believed if he had allowed his sons to stay at his home after picking them up at the babysitter, they might have been alive today.
“It’s like I blame myself still for this ... for not listening to them,” he said.
The murders, Reyes said, began to affect his mental health.
At one point, he had to seek help from two psychiatrists.
He lived on medication.
“I started to hear things. I started to sit down on the corner (of the road) and talk to myself. I kept hearing my sons talking to me.”
Reyes still suffers from depression.
For Reyes, the wheels of justice have been moving too slowly.
“I am just praying for justice because those in authority don’t know the pain yuh does go through when you lose someone you love. Unless something like that doh fall in their garden, they would not understand. I am still suffering to this day.”
Ramsaroop’s pain
What Tara Ramsaroop considered to be a good day was simply one where she was not beaten or abused.
Ramsaroop was so grateful for these days that she often shared them with her older sister Jassodra Rajaram, with whom she shared a close bond and confided in the problems she faced with a close male relative.
Ramsaroop, 34, known to relatives as Geeta and her one-year-old daughter Jada Motilal had been found chopped to death at a relative’s Location Road, Barrackpore, home on October 9.
Ramsaroop’s turbulent relationship with Rishi Motilal, 29, who was eventually arrested and charged with their murders, was allegedly marked with numerous complaints to relatives and police reports before their murders.
The violent deaths of both mother and daughter prompted nationwide outrage over the gruesome nature of the crime and what could have been done to prevent it in the first place.
But with her sister and niece now dead and the man accused of their murders awaiting trial, Rajaram and the surviving family continue to live out their lives one day at a time, hoping for healing they doubt will ever come.
Speaking with Guardian Media at her home, which is within walking distance from the scene of her sister and niece’s murder, Rajaram said time has not dulled the pain of her loss.
Recalling her last interaction with Ramsaroop, the night before her murder, Rajaram said they shared a casual conversation with her sister being in unusually high spirits.
“We were just joking around and making plans for a trip to FunSplash Waterpark.
“I was unsure if I would be going, but she was in such a good mood, she kept insisting.
“She said something to me that I never forgot, ‘You have to live life because you don’t know when is your time’.”
According to Rajaram, her sister’s carefree frame of mind in their last conversation was in stark contrast to the fear and unease often characteristic of her behaviour.
Today, almost two months after the murders of her sister and niece, their last conversation remains as clear as ever, but so does the grief she feels.
Rajaram said while she continues to function in her daily life as a small business owner, wife and mother of two daughters, healing is still a distant thought and fears that she may never recover fully from the loss.
As the older sister, Rajaram said she and her 14-year-old daughter often acted as babysitters for little Jada while her mother worked or ran errands.
During this time, their bond grew stronger, as the loss has been particularly devastating for both Rajaram and her daughter.
“Jada used to be here maybe four or five days for the week with us.
“She was just about to start talking and to this day I still feel like I see her walking around the house.
“My older daughter bundles up everything but I know that she really feels for the loss of Jada, one day she just let it all out and said that she can’t do without her.”
The first few weeks following the murders of mother and daughter continued to take a toll on the family.
Tears were shed and emotions ran high as grief turned to anger towards the suspect.
But even before the murders, Rajaram said her nephew - Ramsaroop’s seven-year-old son -began showing signs of trauma from seeing his mother abused.
“He would wake up either 1 am or 2 am and run to the front door to turn the latch on the door, repeating, ‘Daddy coming, we have to run!’ and this was a nightmare he had.
“The abuse around him was traumatising him and she would have to hug him and wake him up.
“She tried to not let them see what she’s going through, but it was too much to hide.”
The boy who now lives with the mother of the accused is receiving psycho-social support.
And while this assistance is needed to treat any long-term trauma, Rajaram said families should rally together to teach children, especially boys the importance of respecting girls and women.
Increase in demand for protection
Data obtained from the Judiciary earlier this year reported that the total number of protection orders from Family, Children and District Courts had increased from 2,111 in 2022 to 2,785 in 2023.
The data also showed that between January to August this year, 2,270 protection orders were already granted.
An interim protection order was issued for Ramsaroop on April 24.
However, High Court Judge Justice Frank Seepersad in an interview with Guardian Media in October, noted that sufficient resources must be allocated to shelters and homes for victims of abuse. He said having a protection order may not be enough to prevent further attacks.
In her experience, Rajaram said first responders must be held to higher standards of accountability as she recalled instances where reports were made with little more than a receipt to show for it.
After one particularly difficult period of reporting the abuse to the police with little results, Rajaram claimed her sister was frustrated over the lack of response.
“She said, ‘Annie I just fed up. I don’t know what to do again for these police to lock him up.’
“I said ‘Geeta the day something happens to you, that’s when you’ll see all the police,’ and so said, so done.”
However, ACP South-Central Wayne Mystar referred to the protection order granted for Ramsaroop’s safety and reminded victims to avoid interacting with their abusers for their own safety.
“We cannot have persons who have protection orders to protect them, (and) they are operating in a manner that will leave themselves in harm’s way,” Mystar told one daily newspaper.
And while Rajaram agreed that her sister should have kept away from the accused for her own safety, at this point there is nothing more that can be done.
IACHR calls for immediate action
Alarmed by the data, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States, has expressed its concern over the situation of gender-based violence against women in Trinidad and Tobago. The IACHR called on the State to adopt urgent measures to prevent and eradicate gender-based violence, particularly in the family and intimate partner context.
“These measures should incorporate a gender and intersectional approach, ensure the effective protection of survivors and promote the transformation of socio-cultural patterns that normalise gender-based violence against women.
“The Commission received reports of homicides of at least four women in October 2024, who experienced a history of domestic and intimate partner violence. According to publicly available information, in recent weeks physical attacks on six women were reported, of which four died. These attacks were perpetrated by partners or ex-partners of the victims. In some cases, the victims would have been beneficiaries of protection measures that were not implemented,” a press release issued in early November said.
It called on the State to guarantee that all women have access to effective protection measures and judicial guarantees to prevent violence from escalating to femicide. It also called on compliance with obligations to investigate and punish violence, sending a clear message of zero tolerance.
“The Commission recognises the State’s efforts to combat violence against women, such as the National Strategic Plan of Action on Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Violence and the decision of the High Court that recognised the State’s obligation to protect victims of domestic violence from the actions of non-State actors. In this regard, it urges the State to continue and redouble efforts to comprehensively address gender-based violence, including measures to transform discriminatory socio-cultural patterns that normalise violence against women, especially in the domestic and intimate partner contexts.
“In particular, the IACHR urges the State of Trinidad and Tobago to take concrete measures to ensure that any victim or potential victim of gender-based violence has access to timely and effective protection measures, which integrate differentiated approaches to gender and intersectionality; it must also ensure its proper implementation through monitoring, supervision, and accountability mechanisms. In addition, it urges the State to conduct diligent investigations that lead to the identification and punishment of those responsible, in addition to ensuring victims’ access to comprehensive care services and reparation,” the November 7 release said.
CADV continues to advocate for support for battered women
Interim president of the Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV) Dr Katija Khan described the TTPS’ domestic violence figures as alarming.
“I think any figure that shows us the scope and the size of the problem we have in our country is alarming and should continue to alarm us,” she told Guardian Media last week.
The most disturbing crimes, she said, were sexual offences committed against children.
She said in many cases, the victims know the perpetrators, stating that there is an epidemic of violence against women and girls in T&T.
“These people should be playing a role in protecting them. But instead they are causing harm and trauma that they have to live with for years.”
Khan described domestic violence as a scourge that wreaks havoc on households, communities and societies.
In the CADV’s 2021/2022 report, it said 34 people were killed in 2021 as a result of family violence.
Of that number, 14 were as a result of intimate partner violence.
The report stated that from January 2021 to June 2022 CADV provided over 512 free counselling and 32 legal consultations for 147 new clients.
Each year, CADV gets funding from sponsors to help hundreds of women.
Khan said most of the women who sought counselling, legal advice and treatment at CADV are in their 30s, employed and educated.
“At least 85 per cent of them have one child.”
She said these acts of violence against women and children have to do with “power and control.”
Intimidation, isolation, economic abuse and exploitation are also factors.
“It also has to do with minimising blame and not taking responsibility or gaslighting women. It’s not about love and loss.”
As an academic and psychologist, Khan said protection orders have become a contentious and significant issue.
“While it is good that we have those provisions... they don’t have the intended effect when the infrastructure is not there to support enforcement.”
On December 9, CADV will partner with the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action to discuss this matter in detail.
