Woman’s head chopped off

The jury also heard how the same man also chopped his one year-old son several times before throwing both bodies in a bamboo patch near the scene of the crime.

Cadette, 42, went on trial yesterday before Justice Anthony Carmona in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court charged with killing his estranged wife Grace Barbour- Cadette and son, Jabari, at Roxborough Street, Diego Martin, on March 10, 2002.

State attorneys Kathy-Ann Waterman-Latchoo and Joy Balkaran are prosecuting, while St Clair Douglas and Wendy Dougdeen-Bally represent Cadette. Hearing resumes this morning.

Waterman-Latchoo outlined the prosecution’s case to the jury and three alternates.

The court heard that Cadette and his wife were married in October 2000. Jabari was born in February 2001 and they all lived together in Bagatelle, Diego Martin. After a few months, however, the relationship deteriorated and Cadette left the home in 2001.

His wife and son lived with her parents, brothers and sister in Bagatelle. On March 10, 2002, the accused met his wife and baby boy at Roxborough Street, Diego Martin. According to the prosecutor, Cadette used a cutlass to chopped both his wife and son and threw their bodies in a bamboo patch in the same area.

A post-mortem performed some time later by forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes revealed that Grace’s body bore multiple chop wounds, most of them to the head and neck. Grace’s head had been completely severed, and she also had chops to her hands.

The post-mortem revealed that Jabari had chop wounds to the left side of the neck and shoulder.

According to the prosecutor’s opening address, Cadette was spotted by a young woman near the bamboo patch looking through a ladies’ handbag.

Before he had been charged, the prosecutor pointed out that Cadette confessed to three persons on three different occasions about what he had done.

Cadette told someone that he had killed his son because, with his mother dead and his father in jail, he did not want his son growing up with people telling him that his father killed his mother.

Cadette was arrested by Cpl Price five days after the killings. When cautioned, he told the police officer, "yeah, is me who kill my wife and child."

He later gave a written confession admitting the killing again, but he gave a different account of how it happened.

He said he and Grace had an argument about the possibility that she had been having an affair while they were living together as man and wife.

Cadette said he got into a fit of rage and attacked her, and while chopping her, he missed and chopped the child by accident. He then threw both of them in a bamboo patch.