BABY CHOPPED TO DEATH

IN AN act described by police as “sheer madness” and “an act of monstrosity,” a 40-year-old man chopped a 16-month-old baby boy, Kyle, to death, while the child slept on its mother’s bosom, on Tuesday night.

The attack was aimed at the mother, who was accused of infidelity by the man. Even after ending the baby’s life with a single chop which almost split its tiny head in two, the man continued raining chops on the child’s mother, who up to late yesterday, remained warded in critical condition at San Fernando General Hospital, with chops to her neck, arms, legs and chest. Police said the suspect, who was held hiding in bushes behind the house where mother and child were chopped, carried out the gruesome attack. The brutal murder of Kyle Basdeo, 16-months-old, and chopping of his mother Toy Basdeo, 35, a doubles vendor, sent  villagers of the tiny Princes Town hamlet of Crystal View, into a deep state of shock, grief and disbelief.

Investigators told Newsday the suspect had been on the war-path for the past six months. Frequent arguments between the couple, police said, ended with Basdeo being beaten. On Monday, Basdeo went to the Princes Town police station to report the beatings. She implored officers to “come speak to him,” after stating that she did not want to press any charges. According to reports, on Tuesday night police visited the man to warn him about his behaviour towards Basdeo. He promised the officers to stop beating her and the officers left. However, 30 minutes later, the man flew into a rage, asking Basdeo why she brought police to their home. After arguing for a short while with the man, Basdeo took her baby and went in the bedroom to sleep. Around 10.30 pm, the man entered the bedroom with a cutlass and advanced towards Basdeo who was asleep on the bed, with baby Kyle sleeping on her chest. The man dealt the sleeping child a chop to the head, killing the baby instantly.

As Basdeo awoke and started screaming, the man rained down chops on her causing her to fall to the ground, while baby Kyle’s lifeless body lay on the bed. Basdeo’s 14-year-old daughter Sharleen told police when she heard her mother’s screams, she ran into the bedroom and pleaded with the male relative to stop the chopping, but he told the teen to shut up and get out of the room. By this time, Sharleen’s brothers Robin, 11, and Ranjiv, six, also ran into the room and begged the relative to stop chopping their mother. The man then ran out of the house and through some bushes. Bleeding profusely, Basdeo kept shouting, “call the ambulance... call the police!” Sharleen ran to a neighbour’s house where a call was made to the police and ambulance. The woman was taken in an EHS ambulance to the San Fernando General Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery and remains warded in critical condition. Her attacker was subsequently held by police, hiding in bushes at the back of the family house. A bloodstained cutlass was also seized.

When Newsday visited relatives yesterday, Basdeo’s daughter Sharleen, admitted that the relative and her mother had been arguing, “mainly about the baby.” The teenager, who appeared to be tired and confused, said she preferred not to recount what she had witnessed. However, the woman’s brother, who did not want to be named, admitted that the couple had been having frequent disputes and fights. Other relatives described the suspect as an alcoholic and said he was intoxicated when he committed the brutal acts. They said Basdeo had been married for the past 20 years and had four children. Visiting the scene were a party of officers led by Snr Supt Desmond Lambert, ASP Joseph Nathaniel and Sgt Castillo. Up to late yesterday, efforts were being made to have an autopsy carried out on the baby’s body at the Forensic Sciences Centre.

The suspect is expected to appear before a Princes Town magistrate sometime today charged with murder and attempted murder. Baby Kyle is the second infant to be murdered within the space of three days. His murder followed that of two-year-old Judan George, who was hanged by his father, Joseph George, 47, who later committed suicide by hanging. The murder-suicide took place at Joseph’s Lucien Road, Belmont home on Sunday. Just the week before that, three Petit Valley children were burnt to death in a fire, which started after their parents left them to go to market, prompting police to remark that children are now “an endangered species.”