BLOWS, CHOPS ON WOMEN’S DAY

One woman was beaten, thrown down a precipice and left for dead while the other was chopped repeatedly.

In the first incident, at 6.30 pm, Melissa Valley was at her Kingdom Avenue, Arima home when she was accosted by a male relative during a heated argument.

The angry man grabbed cutlass and began chopping the screaming 36-year-old woman.

Valley managed to escape when the man lost his grip of her arm which became soaked in her blood and she ran out of the house.

The woman ran to the nearby home of her sister Ria, who locked the house and contacted the police. Valley was later taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope where she underwent emergency surgery and remains warded in serious but stable condition. Police, meanwhile, arrested a suspect who up to press time, was in custody.

In the second incident, a 33-year-unemployed woman of John Lane, D’Abadie is today thanking her lucky y thanking her lucky stars after surviving a most horrendous attack at the hands of her boyfriend who is 11 years her junior. Sterla Yorke remains warded in excruciating pain at the EWMSC where she is receiving treatment for injuries to her head and neck.

Yorke told police she began a relationship with a 22-yearold Lopinot man some months ago. On Wednesday the suspect picked up Yorke at her home telling her he wanted company as he goes to Blanchisseuse Road in Arima to look for someone. Yorke told police everything appeared well as they chatted in the car.

On reaching Blanchisseuse Road at 9 pm, the young man stopped the vehicle in a dark area, alighted from the vehicle and began choking Yorke. She was struck to the back of the head and lost consciousness.

When Yorke regained consciousness, she found herself alone at the bottom of a ten-foot deep precipice. Her boyfriend was gone.

Bleeding from injuries, Yorke slowly and painfully climbed back to the the roadway and while walking aimlessly along Blanchisseause Road, was helped by a passer-by who contacted Arima police. She was taken in an ambulance to the EWMSC and warded. Police sources told Newsday that a manhunt had been launched for the suspect who is believed to have gone into hiding.

Yesterday, Yorke was visited at the Accident Emergency Ward by her mother Gail who told Newsday that she was too distraught to say anything about the incident but was happy that her daughter was alive.

The attack of these two women was discussed in depth on Wednesday as this country joined the world in observing International Women’s Day and making a call for equality for women and protection of girls and women from domestic violence, sexual violence and discrimination on the basis of gender.