Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Eighty-year-old Lawrence Ram­per­sad prayed for his life and the safe­ty of his bedrid­den wife as two in­trud­ers beat him at his Gran Cou­va home on Tues­day.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ram­per­sad re­called that he was feed­ing his wife a meal on a bed down­stairs in their home when the in­trud­ers en­tered through the back door, catch­ing him by sur­prise.

“These two guys come from the back and start­ed beat­ing me there, while feed­ing she and I fall. When they hit me first, I fall on the ground. When they see the blood, like they get fright­en. They still come and hit me again in my hand. When I go to get up, they hit me next one there,” he said, point­ing to his left ear.

Ram­per­sad said since suf­fer­ing a stroke three years ago, his wife Sumatie, who is al­so 80, has been bedrid­den and un­able to speak. While he was be­ing beat­en, she was cry­ing.

The in­trud­ers de­mand­ed that he hand over his jew­ellery, but he re­peat­ed­ly told them he had none. They even­tu­al­ly left emp­ty-hand­ed.

Ram­per­sad suf­fered a wound to his head that re­quired six stitch­es and is hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ty hear­ing in his left ear. The cou­ple have been mar­ried for 47 years and have lived at the ad­dress for more than four decades.

“Is a qui­et vil­lage. Every­body shock that this hap­pen,” he said.

He com­plained that the crime sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try was out of con­trol and ex­pressed doubt that it could be im­proved.

He nev­er­the­less be­lieves it would be a good idea to have one of the new po­lice posts in­stalled in the near­by com­mu­ni­ty of Preysal.

Since the in­ci­dent, he said po­lice have been con­duct­ing night pa­trols, and he hopes the pa­trols con­tin­ue.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.