Mohammed, who won the women’s doubles title with Keneel Teasdale on Friday, defeated Solange Skeene 6-4, 6-4 in an 85-minute contest to claim the women’s singles title again. Skeene had an impressive run in the category, which included a first round win over top seed Emma Davis.

Mohammed can win a third title in the tournament as she is competing in the mixed doubles category with Akiel Duke. The pair won their first round encounter yesterday, outlasting Guillermo Gomes and Fabiana Guedez 6-1, 6-2. In men’s singles round one action, Brandon Tom, Javier Lewis and Samuel West were all in winners row. Tom defeated Gianluc Robinson 7-5, 6-4, Lewis got past Scott Hackshaw 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and West outlasted Keshan Moonasar 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

The tournament continues today from 2 pm.

OTHER RESULTS Men’s Singles Round One – Adam Escalante def Jadon Alexis 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Brandon Gregoire def Kristyan Valentine 6-4, 6-4; Aidan Carter def Nick Rowlands 6-0, 6-1; Che Andrews def Nkrumah Patrick 6-1, 3-6, 7-5; Ethan Jeary def Ronald Robinson 6-2, 7-5.

Senior Veterans Singles Quarterfinals – Athelstan Phillips def Dipnarine Rampersad – walkover; Michael Pemberton def Roderick Williams – walkover; Frank Ramudit def Ken Aberdeen 6-3, 6-1.

The meet which has attracted over 280 swimmers from across Trinidad and Tobago was officially opened on Friday night by the president of the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) Wendell Lai Hing, is ongoing at the National Aquatic Centre in Balmain, Couva and is the final qualifier for the Carifta Swimming Championships in Bahamas next month.

Wilson, who is earmarked to be a CARIFTA debutant this year, won gold in the 11-12 male 100-metre freestyle, 50m backstroke and 200m butterfly.

He achieved both CARIFTA and CCCAN qualifying times in the process.

Aqeel Joseph of Sea Hawks also won gold in the 13-14 male equivalent of these events.

Blackett followed suit winning gold in the 9-10 female 50m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly.

UTT’s Amira Pilgrim, Jada Chai of Atlantis, Zachary Anthony and Jada Chatoor of Marlins, Tidal Wave’s Kael Yorke, and eightand- under girl Isabella Mendoza of Eagles each picked up a couple of medals. The meet ends today with heats at 9 am and finals at 5 pm.

Batting first, Roberts cracked 100 to guide Merry Boys to a massive 402 for eight at the Brian Lara Recreation Ground in Santa Cruz.

Roberts, who slammed seven fours and three sixes in his 123-ball innings, was ably supported by Clifton Halls (78), Amir Jangoo (71) and Mario Belcon (62) who all scored half centuries.

Kashtri Singh was the best bowler for Comets grabbing 5/103 in 28 overs, while Roshon Primus took 2/52.

At St Mary’s Ground in St Clair, defending champions Queen’s Park are in control against First Citizens Clarke Road. After dismissing Clarke Road for 154, the Parkites closed the day on 152/2.

Batting first at the Sancho/St Julien Road Recreation Ground in Princes Town Powergen scored 209, before Ansil Bhagan took 7/46 to help reduce Tableland to 128/9 at stumps. In the last match of the round, Central Sports posted 249 at the Barrackpore West Secondary School Ground. At the close Jailal Enterprise Victoria were 22/1.

The same fixtures will take place today in the 50-over competition, before Round Four of the Three- Day competition concludes next weekend.

SUMMARISED SCORES MERRY BOYS 402/8 (Lincoln Roberts 100, Clifton Halls 78, Amir Jangoo 71, Mario Belcon 62; Kashtri Singh 5/103, Roshon Primus 2/52) vs ALESCON COMETS.

POWERGEN 209 (Akiel Cooper 62, Jeron Maniram 49, Ewart Nicholson 34; Brian Pegus 4/57, Tareeq Abdool 2/20) vs TABLELAND 128/9 (Elijah St Clair 20, Gabriel Blackwell 20; Ansil Bhagan 7/46, Kavesh Kantasingh 2/57).

CENTRAL SPORTS 249 (Kjorn Ottley 53, Shazan Babwah 50; Sanjiv Gooljar 3/44, Garey Mathurin 3/51, Uthman Muhammed 2/43) vs JAILAL ENTERPRISE VICTORIA 22/1 (Marcelle Jones 14 not out).

FIRST CITIZENS CLARKE ROAD 154 (Gregory Mahabir 65 not out; Terrance Hinds 5/26, Kevon Cooper 2/32, Javon Searles 2/49) vs QUEEN’S PARK 152/2 (Tion Webster 62, Daron Cruickshank 38, Ahkeel Mollon 2/34).

Cleverly ridden by jockey Sheldon Rodrigo, the seven-year-old Baskaran Bassawh-owned chestnut made most of the running before scooting clear 600 metres out to win the 1350 metres extended sprint wiorth $75,000 by a long looking 9 3/4 lengths.

In victory yesterday, Bigman In Town became only the second horse to take the Starlight twice after the late Bruceontheloose, and so denying second placed Swept Away of that honour.

Newboy apprentice Omar Mohammed will always remember yesterday, as he landed his first career victory astride Sweetmaninsouth, a half-length winner of the day’s third race.

It was only the young rider’s second career ride.

There was a massive upset victory for the Rolf Bartolo owned and trained Root Of Jesse who rewarded backers with a tote payout of $33.10 and $6.05.

And with Electrify, Sweet Genius and Mafia Man following, the Superfecta dividend was a handsome $6,385.90.

The father and son tandem of Dave Cghadee and Harold Chadee had three winners on the day’s nine-race programme.

Harriram “Pepsi” Gobin was just one step behind, saddling two winners including the Bigman In Town.

Sheldon Rodrigo and ex-champion jockey Nela Mohammed shared honours among the jockeys steering home two winners apiece.

In addition to having Down Syndrome, two years ago, Jon, 35, suffered a psychotic break, and last year was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Despite these challenges, though, Jon has found a way to communicate through painting, and Arlene has organised an art exhibition for him. The purpose? To show that people suffering with a mental illness have abilities too.

The exhibition, titled Dis-is-Ability, will take place at Horizons Art Gallery located at 37 Mucurapo Road, St James. It opens at 7 pm on March 21, World Down Syndrome Day, and will continue until March 25 from 9 am to 5.30 pm. It will feature paintings of nature and still life in acrylic paints on canvas board. “It shows the fact that there is ability regardless of what is perceived as a disability. I think the fact that Jon has been able to produce this work is a clear indication that, in some instances there may be people who we may write off because we see them as disabled, and we think they are not able to produce, but Jon’s work is proof that this is not so. If one person goes away from the exhibition thinking, ‘Let me give this person a space to see what they could do,’ that’s enough,” said Arlene.

In fact, she stressed that it did not matter whether or not any of Jon’s pieces were sold because the point was to let people see what he was doing, and to make them aware of the possibilities.

Arlene, a teacher, told Sunday Newsday she remembered one day looking out of her classroom window and watching some boys play football.

Her first thought was that her son would never do that. However, she said a parent of a child with Down Syndrome should not stay at the “why me?” stage and keep dwelling on the negatives.

“You have to move from that place of disappointment because if you don’t, you can’t help your child to develop into a full person, as full as they could be. You have to forget about what is normal for everyone else and work on developing a new normal. So his dad and I decided that Jon needed to have as full and as normal a life as possible for as long as possible.” Jon was included in all family activities, including vacations and visits to the theatre.

They did not limit him but accepted the boundaries of his disabilities. He attended a montessori and primary school as a child, and now attends the Lady Hochoy Vocational Centre. There he got involved in power-lifting and took part in the local Special Olympics for several years.

However, after his psychotic break in August 2015, he stopped this sport but still goes to the gym twice per week.

“When Jon got ill we had a new ‘new normal.’ He lost touch with reality, he lost touch with this thoughts and feelings, he had delusions and hallucinations so he had to be put on medication and joined the psychiatric clinic in Mt Hope,” Arlene recalled. The medication helped immensely, although there had to be several adjustments as he could not articulate how the medication made him feel.

However, she had a lot of support from his doctors and his sister, who is a psychologist, and said Jon has now mostly stabilised.

Even while on heavy medication, Jon started learning football skills and participated in the Special Olympics in football last year, and will do so again in April.

“Mental illness is not just difficult for the person who has the illness. It is difficult for the people all around that person.

I cope because I believe in God.

God is my rock. That’s how I get through every day. If God takes his hand off of me I would have a Matrix moment and I will dissolve.” Arlene said community was also necessary for a person suffering from mental illness. Jon has the support of several communities, including his church, his gym, and Lady Hochoy. She has the support of her family as well as the Down Syndrome Family Network, which is scheduled to hold a conference on March 20 at the Magdalena Grand in Tobago, and on March 21 at the Hyatt Regency in Portof- Spain.

She explained that when Jon first had the psychotic breakdown he was put on strong anti-psychotic medication which had him “withdrawn, zonked out, and he was not responding to much of anything.” In an effort to help him find his way back to himself, Arlene decided, as an experiment, to try art.

She and Jon attended an art and wine event.

“He was not responding much to anything. I thought the teacher would have to go and help Jon, but no. Jon did his background, and his kiskadee looked like a kiskadee, while my kiskadee looked like a pregnant chicken. I was definitely surprised,” she laughed.

When she saw the work her son had produced, and that he was calm and attentive, Arlene decided to continue his art education and found him an art teacher. She said sometimes painting was a challenge for him depending on the kind of day he was having, but he enjoyed it, had an affinity for it, and it was good for him.

“I asked him once if he wanted to go to art.

He said yes and I asked him why. He said it makes him happy. If there’s one thing that makes him happy, I’ll do that one thing 365 days for the year.” Arlene also realised that painting was Jon’s way of expressing himself.

She noted that he had been talking less since the breakdown and art was a way of communicating for someone who could not communicate with words.

She said his teacher, Miss Garcia, pulled emotion out of him, and assisted and guided his work. She added that Jon recently started to paint pictures of the photographs he took on his iPad, giving him a lot of material with which to work as he loved taking pictures.

Arlene decided to have an exhibition when Jon’s pieces started to clutter up the house.

“I was thinking about legacy. Legacy is important to me. As a teacher for many many years, I know where my legacy lies. I’ve always wondered about Jon’s legacy – he’s not going to get married, or have children, and then this happened.

I had been praying about it and one day the Lord said to me, ‘You’ve been asking.

Here it is.’” She is also in the process of publishing a coffee book of Jon’s paintings over the past year, also called Dis-is-Ability. She said because of Early-onset Alzheimer’s, one day splashing paint may be all he could do. Therefore, the exhibition and the book was a way for Jon to leave something behind – something tangible as well as the intangible idea of possibility

The concert, titled Unplugged, was held at the Little Carib Theatre on March 14. It featured 14 teenaged girls who wrote and shared their personal stories and concerns related to social issues, including gender based violence, adoption, body shaming, bullying, teen suicide, the country’s crime rate, the economy, and racism.

Hannah Parris started off the evening with the self-aware spoken word piece, Who Am I? She highlighted her place in her family, the things she loved, her personality, but in the end recognised, “I am no ordinary girl. I am Hannah.” In When I Share A Poem, Karissa Ali discovered her voice.

She said she was no longer the girl sitting in a corner and keeping her thoughts to herself.

Instead, when she shared her poems, they were as “a mirror into her soul” and it made her feel free, refreshed, and renewed.

Tahirah Williams expressed her fears of being a young woman in society in her poem What is Fear? She told the audience that she could not walk the road and feel safe. Instead, she wonders if or when someone would snatch her, rape her, traffic her or murder her.

Shenelle Vincent made members of the audience think when she asked what they thought when they heard the word “woman.” She lamented that some men still believe that they can own a woman, that some men openly lust after a woman and then take the woman as their own. However, in the end, she said that “woman” was not just a word that stemmed from the word “man,” but that woman meant resilience, strength, courage, and “all that is good.” Tishauna Jones sang about the black woman – how she may be ridiculed because of the colour of her skin, but that same skin was a coat of amour with which she blessed her children. She encouraged darkskinned women to be proud.

One of the highlights for the evening was the song, Birth of a Nation by Aaliya Holder and Jaqueline Frauenfelder Haynes. The girls sang in harmony with piano accompaniment.

“We’re fighting this war for a nation where sticks and stones break no more,” they sang to a resounding round of applause and shouts for an encore, which they reluctantly gave.

The two-hour event was thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining, with the girls encouraging audience participation as they performed, many of them for the first time.

The pieces were short and sweet, as well as insightful and moving. It was also obvious that a lot of critical thought and emotion went into writing the pieces, and it was both sad and encouraging that the girls were so aware of the challenges facing them in today’s society.

Co-founder and executive director of Girl Be Heard, Jessica Greer Morris, explained that the organisation was an international New York-based organisation that hosts after-school, girl empowerment programmes.

It develops, amplifies, and celebrates the voices of young women through socially conscious theatre.

It creates safe spaces for young women to share personal stories and raise awareness about social justice issues affecting girls locally and abroad.

She said it was a job-creation programme aimed at helping to create more jobs for artists and activists.

Morris told Sunday Newsday Girl Be Heard was invited to Trinidad after Nicole “Ms Brafit” Joseph-Chin saw them do a show about sex trafficking in New York.

“When we came here it was like a calling. We’ve been to eight countries but unfortunately, although they want the programme, there’s no funding. Steve Weekes of the US Embassy found us a grant and made it happen,” she explained.

She added that Girl Be Heard was basically a listening programme that also taught the girls how to write, express themselves, and even a little theatre.

“What we do, they say it’s so innovative and radical, and we won all these awards, but basically we sit in a room and listen to girls.

Who’s listening to girls? Who’s asking them what they care about, what they dream about, what they want the world to be. If you listen closely enough, young people, the next generation, could lead us to a better place.” Unplugged was directed by Penelope Spencer and Deneka Thomas, and was held in collaboration with Jean Claude Counard, director of 2 Cents Movement, which is the licence holder of Girl Be Heard Trinidad and Tobago.

The student are also scheduled to perform at the Bocas Lit Fest at the National Library in Port-of-Spain on April 30; and at the Central Bank Auditorium, Independence Square on June 29.

Individuals and organisations are encouraged to sponsor a girl or a school so that the six-month programme could continue. Those interested are asked to contact Girl Be Heard TT programme manager, Takitah De Four at takiyah@girlbeheard.

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He was speaking with Sunday Newsday on the state of film. He said that from 2005 to 2015 it has been an critical period in terms of consolidating film infrastructure, especially during a time when we had considerable money from oil and gas. He pointed out that the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and the UWI Film Programme all had their genesis around 2005 and 2006.

“People talking forever about developing a film. We need to talk about developing a film culture as well.” He said it was about getting people exposed to a broader diet besides Hollywood fare and expressed hope that people would try films from all over the world and this would perfectly match this country’s pluralism.

“We are a world within a world.” The country would move from being just consumers of motion pictures, he said, to producing our own on a regular basis, adding that by accident or design, we did begin to develop a film culture in the last decade.

“Seeing local films becomes normal.

That was the goal.” He pointed out that now more than ever it has become a normal part of some people’s lives to make films.

“The concern for me is that now that we found love (started making films) what are we gonna do with it?” he asked rhetorically.

THE KESHORN WALCOTT OF FILM Ramesar said we need to look at the nature of the culture and film in Trinidad and Tobago, which should be a subset of the overall culture. He added, however, there is a culture in this country where we do not distribute opportunity fairly among all citizens.

Apart from not producing an equitable system, he said, we are also not able to get the best work done.

He noted that there are complaints all the time from the “have nots” who felt that they did not have fair access to opportunities to make films. These, he said, seem to be working class people who are outside the centre of things. “People say openly they are not given a fair share (when it comes to) grants for their work (and they) felt like outside children.” Ramesar recalled that when he was chairman of the TT Film Company from 2014 to 2015 he felt that more voices needed to be heard and visions seen.

He remembered during a visit to Brasil for the 2012 Olympics a homeless man recognised his TT scarf and gesticulated like he was throwing a javelin, a reference to Olympic gold medal winner Keshorn Walcott.

“I said (to myself) Keshorn Walcott is from Toco and I felt…the next great film talent (could) come from anywhere in Trinidad and Tobago.” From Charlotteville, Rio Claro or Cascade. “My view was to mine talent, (and to) find talent in the small population we have to spread the net as wide as possible.” Ramesar said that it was not just about fairness, but practicality as the more people you “audition” the better chance of finding talent.

“If people complain that opportunity is concentrated in a small group and geographical space then we need to examine that. It meant that the next Keshorn Walcott of cinema is out there and it is a real sin not to have looked for them, found them and given them a chance.” He said that he never wanted film in this country to become something elite. He added that there was a time making a film was financially prohibitive but with technology like Digital SL R cameras it was more accessible. He also pointed out that with Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses programme more people could study film, including at the UWI Film Programme.

Ramesar has seen film-makers with very humble resources produce films on their own, like Jeffrey Allen with his 2014 crime drama Welcome to Warlock, Roger Alexis with his 2012 puppet comedy I’m Santana: the Movie and Nicholas Attin with his three features Little Boy Blue (2011), Escape from Babylon (2013) and Tomb (2016).

He said there were many more examples and there was a “mini-revolution” taking place. He also said there is a lot of “community cinema” with about half a dozen feature films coming out similar to Welcome to Warlock.

He said that to date the film industry has not produced a net profit to taxpayers and this was because of a lot of “unforced errors”.

“Going into film I can’t say we harnessed the best minds and human resources but chased a lot of shadows which were (from) external models.” He highlighted that we did not get the economies of scale right and we also tried to graft from outside without taking into consideration our own indigenous culture.

Ramesar said he would have preferred that we seed scores of films with micro budgets and have “all lines in the water” rather than concentrate a lot of money in relatively few productions.

He explained that around 2013 he expected that the energy boom would begin coming to an end and he had a sense of urgency to transform the industry and push for diversification both within film and generally in the economy.

He said that regional and international audiences are drawn to films like Warlock and Santana because they “seem to carry greater authenticity than the conservative, orthodox films being made.” Ramesar explained that through his own efforts he tried to transform the industry and culture radically and suddenly but people resisted.

He lamented that we are stuck with very little capital to invest in film. He expressed hope, however, that we will have 20 features per year and each month one or two in the multiplex, and that they can appear on cable or streaming sites like Netflix.

He said that people are noticing a wave of films coming from this country and that something is happening here.

DRAWING ON MUSIC AND CULTURE Film usually follows music, and since this country has such a strong music industry Ramesar said we need to “pump” soundtracks and unify music and films.

On the bright side, TT has a lot of talent coming up apart from the students at the UWI Film Programme, who have consistently copped awards at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and gone on to other various festivals.

On the negative side, though, he suspected that the industry was operating without much research and is “data poor”, and he stressed the need to take calculated risks.

Asked about the role Government has to play in developing the industry, Ramesar said to support film the State would have to redirect funds from one area to another.

He stressed, however, that cultural industries is one of the fastest growing in the world. Ramesar, whose latest film Last Dance of the Karaoke King was being shot in India and Trinidad, lamented that it was difficult to get a film made here. This, he opined, needed to be incentivised, as without it we could see a brain drain of talent.

On a positive note he was excited by the talent he was seeing on the horizon and said we can make authentic films about ourselves and make money doing it, as one actually followed the other.

He compared the local film industry to Carnival bands and questioned whether we had become so generic that “we are producing a cinematic pretty mas”.

“We are in danger of doing that.” He said instead we need to pull from our past and our traditions of storytelling, folklore and rich cultural heritage.

He stressed that in local film industry there are still divisions of class, race, gender and age and “a house divided cannot stand”. He said the small group needs to come together and not get into cliques and special interest pockets.

“We need to get our act together and bury the hatchet. If we don’t do that we will not have a film industry.”

Mulay was speaking to reporters prior to the opening ceremony of the Indian Diaspora World Convention 2017 at the Divali Nagar, Chaguanas yesterday.

He said the convention was “very significant” as it provided an opportunity to “think of the global Indian community” and how far it had come and the direction in which it was headed.

“It’s important to know because sometimes it gives us this opportunity to take stock of what we have done so far and where we are headed,” he said, adding, “while our 30 million overseas Indians are doing well wherever they are, time has come to see how we can connect them while maintaining their lives in the country of their stay, their host country.” He continued: “How can we connect them better with India, not only on the emotional plane but also in trade, investment, technology, education, health services.” Mulay said the relationship between the overseas diaspora and the homeland would be beneficial to both parties saying the Indian government had taken a number of steps including the introduction of an Overseas Citizenship of India card and the Know India programme.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India website, a registered Overseas Citizen of India is “granted multiple entry, multi-purpose, lifelong visa for visiting India.” The card also entitles them to general parity with non-resident Indians in respect of all facilities available to them in economic, financial and educational fields except in matters relating to the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.

“So I think it is important that the community here pro-actively participate in developing these contacts, they should not be passive, there is no reason for them to be passive, intellectual activity should be spurred but it has to be done jointly,” he said.

Conference chairman Dr Primnath Gooptar said the event would “bring to the fore some of the burning issues” which confront diaspora communities and that new directions and initiatives would be created.

The day of his death was a dark, cold day.

The signal achievement of Derek Walcott, 87, was to produce outstanding poetry. The scope of that achievement was monumental.

Here was a poet whose style encompassed all forms, all fashions.

But beneath his verse was a fierce politics. He believed in the Caribbean, he understood its unique qualities, the power – or the potential power – of its melting pot. He placed post-colonial societies back in their rightful place, near the top of human civilization.

“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole,” Walcott famously said in his Nobel lecture upon being awarded that prize in 1992. “The glue that fits the pieces is the sealing of its original shape. It is such a love that reassembles our African and Asiatic fragments.” He continued, “And this is the exact process of the making of poetry, or what should be called not its ‘making’ but its remaking, the fragmented memory, the armature that frames the god, even the rite that surrenders it to a final pyre; the god assembled cane by cane, reed by weaving reed, line by plaited line, as the artisans of Felicity would erect his holy echo.” From his first book 25 Poems to his last Morning, Paramin, Walcott made an argument for understanding the value of our experiences.

He saw our society not in passive terms, but in active ones. If his compatriot and sometime antagonist VS Naipaul thought history had served us a bad deal, Walcott found the game was not over.

While some perceive Walcott as using Western literature to express his own views and concerns, the truth is he was actually doing something far more profound. He was saying there was no disconnect in the first place. West and East are all equal in the sea. “I was the well of the world,” he once wrote. “I wore the stars on my skin.” But this was no politician or peddler of rhetoric. Walcott was also a playwright and a painter. His contribution to regional theatre was the result of an inexhaustible belief in this art form.

Walcott was born in 1930 in Castries, Saint Lucia. His father, a watercolourist, died when Derek and his twin brother, Roderick, were only a few years old. His mother ran the town’s Methodist school.

After studying at St Mary’s College in his native island and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Walcott moved in 1953 to Trinidad, where he worked as theatre and art critic.

At the age of 18, he made his debut with 25 Poems, but his breakthrough came with the collection of poems, In a Green Night (1962).

In 1959, he founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop which produced many of his early plays. Today, sadly, the fate of the TTW is unclear. After it was removed from its premises on Hart Street, Port-of- Spain, it was relocated to Belmont but may soon be in search of a new home unless it receives financial assistance.

We join the nation in expressing our condolences to Walcott’s family and to those members of the literary and artistic community who were close to him. His monument is comprised of his many books, glittering works of art that demonstrate the acuteness of his vision and his awesome talent for imagery, metaphor, rhyme and the surprise.

Even in his recent collaboration with the painter Peter Doig, he demonstrated a capacity to playfully relish in poetry’s primal relationship with art through ekphrasis.

While he will be remembered for many great poems, such as The Schooner Flight, Love After Love and The Light of the World, it was in one of his finest earliest poems, Mass Men, that Walcott set out the blueprint he was following.

Addressing the spectral image of a slave, and perhaps his reader, he wrote, “Someone must write your poems.” May he rest in peace.

One of the men beat the woman with an iron wheel spanner.

The drama did not end there, as one of the two suspects was later nabbed at a police station where he had gone to make a false report of robbery committed against him. The woman, who is now warded in serious condition at hospital, became hysterical on seeing her attacker as she too was at the same police station making a report on the attack.

One of the suspects, is a man whom the woman had brought up in the Pt Fortin Magistrates Court for failure to maintenance for the one-year-old child.

The 33-year-old man pleaded with her not to pursue the court case, but said nothing would stop her from going to court the next day (yesterday).

The man later invited the woman to bring their daughter and accompany him to Chuck E Cheese eatery in Chaguanas.

She agreed.

On reaching Oropouche, Thursday afternoon, the man picked up a male friend and told the woman he (the second man) wanted a drop to Mt St Benedict. According to reports, shortly after 2 pm, the man stopped the car near a farm in Mt St Benedict.

Without warning, both men began to beat the woman with a wheel spanner even as she held her daughter. The baby, who also got some lashes, fell from her mother’s arms and landed in the bush.

The screams of the woman and her child, alerted the two forest rangers who rest rangers who were on forest fire watch duty at the time.

When the rangers ran to the woman’s assistance, both attackers jumped into the car which sped off.

The forest rangers contacted the Tunapuna police and took the badly bleeding woman and her daughter to the station.

While they were at the station, arrangements were being made to take the victim to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) when the main suspect walked into the station to report he had been robbed.

The woman, on seeing her estranged lover, began screaming in the charge room.

The man was immediately detained. The woman was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope where she was treated and remains warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Tests revealed she suffering multiple fractures to her head and there was swelling in the brain.

She was also treated at the Children’s Hospital at the same institution and kept overnight for observation.

The victim was interviewed yesterday at her bedside by the investigators and gave a full statement to officers. A second suspect is being sought in connection with the brutal near fatal attack.

Both forest rangers have also given detailed statements to the police. Northern Division head Snr Supt Mc Donald Jacob praised the rangers for not turning a deaf ear to the woman’s screams.

Charges of attempted murder, are being contemplated by police who continue their investigations into the incident.

The man remains in custody.