Raped, robbed, and stabbed … and lives to tell the story

Violence against women is a common theme running through crime reports, but the story we lead with tonight is more disturbing than most in that it is not the first, nor second time the victim has been targeted.

Voice of Victim
“It is the third attempt on my life and my children are very traumatised, so I really hope that this time something is being done.”

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
This thirty-one year old Belizean woman does not want to be identified, but in the past three months she has been shot in the leg, knocked in the head with a hammer, and stabbed numerous times in the back. The latest incident unfolded after three this morning inside her Belize City home. The woman says she was sleeping when she was suddenly awakened by a noise.

Voice of Victim
“I just heard the sound of a door bang and I woke up and when I woke up I open up my eyes and my mom was about to scream when a male person told her not to scream and don’t make any noise or else you are going to see what happen to you. When I heard that, then I sat down on the edge of my bed then I saw a male person came into my room and start asking me where is the money and where is my jewellery.”

The men not only stole four pairs of earrings, two gold rings, and two cell phones, but then they proceeded to stab the young mother.

Voice of Victim
“I was stabbed in my leg, in my two legs I was stabbed and in my back. Before they stab me, they tied my both hands with a rag and they tied my mouth. After that, they told me to lie down on the bed. So I lie down on my bed and they went outside and I heard one of the guys told the other guy, he said, “Hurry up because we have to leave now.” Then I heard they both come into my room and I start feeling something on my back and then I say, but these guys they are stabbing me.”

“Each of them had a knife and they just start stabbing me in my knee and the clear skin one, he was brown skin, he stab me but probably the knife didn’t go in my leg how he wanted, so I had my ironing board right at the end of my bed and he took the iron off that and he started hammering the knife with the iron.”

The victim also said that one of the men raped her. But why is this young woman being attacked? According to the victim she believes all incidents are linked to a long stormy relationship she ended one year ago.

Voice of Victim
“Yes I do believe that they are being paid and that’s the reason why they attacked me, because it’s the third time and I believe all these guys are being paid by the same person. … It is personal, but I don’t really want to go into details, but I know it’s personal.”

The woman says the person she suspects is the same man who has threatened to cripple her.

Jacqueline Godwin
“What are the doctors saying about you prognosis?”

Voice of Victim
“It’s not really dangerous because they didn’t really hit any, you know, veins or any muscle, so I will be able to recover shortly.”

“I had explained to the police that when I did my report to them that the guy told me that if I reported this incident that they will come back and not only hurt me this time but they will done with my life and they will also hurt my children. So I am asking the police to follow up this case.”

The woman says she believes she will be able to identify at least one of the men who attacked her. The police say their investigations continue, but so far no arrests have been made in any of the three reported incidents.