RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A men­tal­ly ill man is now in po­lice cus­tody, af­ter he al­leged­ly beat 57-year-old Mala Boodram to death at her Cleghorn Vil­lage, Princes Town home yes­ter­day.

The sus­pect works at the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty in San Fer­nan­do.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said that around 11.40 am, Boodram went down­stairs to ask the sus­pect why he had dis­con­nect­ed the in­ter­net, which he paid for on a month­ly ba­sis. It is be­lieved that the sus­pect flew in­to a rage and start­ed beat­ing her.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the vic­tim’s home yes­ter­day, Boodram’s sis­ter, Omatie Bas­deo, said af­ter the at­tack, the sus­pect called them to say Boodram had suf­fered a heart at­tack.

“When we came, he was sit­ting on the couch. She was found with blood in her mouth and bruis­es on her body,” Bas­deo said.

In­di­cat­ing that the sus­pect has a his­to­ry of men­tal ill­ness, Bas­deo said, “He goes to Ward 1, and usu­al­ly, when he takes his med­i­cine, he is a good per­son. He doesn’t in­ter­fere with any­one or be­come vi­o­lent. But he was on va­ca­tion for three weeks. I know he gets an­gry some­times, but nev­er like this.”

Boodram, a moth­er of two, worked in a roti shop and of­ten catered for her neigh­bours.

Mean­while, a Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ St Au­gus­tine cam­pus, Ger­ard Hutchin­son, ex­pressed con­do­lences to the be­reaved fam­i­ly. The pro­fes­sor not­ed that there has been an in­crease in the preva­lence of men­tal ill­ness among young adults world­wide since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“Al­though men­tal health is­sues are still rel­a­tive­ly stig­ma­tised, do not hes­i­tate to seek treat­ment when one sus­pects that a rel­a­tive or friend is strug­gling with men­tal health prob­lems,” he urged.

He added that a small per­cent­age of pa­tients could be­come ag­gres­sive and vi­o­lent when they did not take their pre­scribed med­ica­tion.

“The first thing is not to stop tak­ing med­ica­tion with­out a full dis­cus­sion with the treat­ment team,” he ad­vised.

He added, “The law al­lows for per­sons with se­ri­ous men­tal ill­ness to be treat­ed against their will if they pose a threat to them­selves or oth­ers, so be pre­pared to en­gage this process if nec­es­sary.”

When asked to give ad­vice to cit­i­zens deal­ing with men­tal ill­ness, the pro­fes­sor said, “En­sure as best as pos­si­ble that they are not al­so tak­ing recre­ation­al drugs while on their pre­scribed med­ica­tion.”

He added, “Keep in close touch with the treat­ment team so that as­sis­tance can be pro­vid­ed when need­ed and quick­ly.”