Increase in domestic violence evident in stats/stories

It is one of those subjects that many people don’t like to talk about, which could be why domestic violence is on the increase in Belize. In 2003, one thousand two hundred and forty cases were reported. Of that number fifty point five percent or six hundred and twenty-six of those incidents took place in Belize City. In the early morning hours of Sunday, one more statistic was added to that list. Jacqueline Woods has the story of Shirley Arnold.

Jacqueline Woods Reporting

Earlier this year, twenty-five year old Shirley Arnold Lambey and her boyfriend twenty-four year old Travis Olivera moved in together but just four months into that relationship there was trouble.

Shirley Arnold Lambey, Victim of Domestic Violence

?Well the first time we went into a party and then the same time I was just talking to a friend and then when he and me di go home now, he just whap me with my shoes in my head and bust my head. When he bust my head he just ran and gone on his bicycle and I never did see him until next day when he come home and want to try and sweet me up and make he and me get back together and I gave him another chance. ?

Today, Lambey lies in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital with multiple chops to her legs while Olivera is locked away at the Hattieville prison on remand for the crime. The violence erupted at the couple?s home sometime between one thirty and two Sunday morning.

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?I was not doing anything out of the way. Me and my friend went for a little circle on my bike and after that I come home. He was not home and when he come home he was drunk and the same time he come home, he jump through window, he had a machete in his hands and then the same time he start to chop up my foot. ?

Lambey says each time Olivera struck her with the blade he asked her where she had gone with her friend.

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?While he was chopping my foot, he told me that before he did it he told me why he is doing it. I am chopping your foot because I do not want you to go anywhere. He said when you want to use the bathroom, I will take you to the bathroom. I will bathe you; I will do everything for you because after this I do not want you to go nowhere–that is what he told me. ?

Lambey was chopped two times in her left foot, three times in her right leg, one time in her left leg and left knee. Today it is not certain when she will be able to walk on her own.

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?The doctor told me that my two small toes, the bones there are broken and as soon as the injuries they get better they will take out the stitch. Then I will go into surgery and then they wah put my foot in a cast.?

Jacqueline Woods

?So you won?t be able to walk for a while??

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?No mam, I won?t be able to walk for a while.?

As in many cases Lambey says every time she was attacked, Olivera had too much to drink.

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?He always drunk; he got the same habit. He love to drink and get hasty and stuff like that.

Jacqueline Woods

Now you know other women who have been abused they claim they would press charges but never go through with it. Will you press charges??

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?Yes, I will press charges because why he did something like this. I can?t just let my foot go just like that. Cause he never had to do me this. He never had to chop my foot. He could a mi beat me up and then…?

Jacqueline Woods

?But why? Nobody is supposed to be beating you.?

Shirley Arnold Lambey

?Yes mam, but I mi wah rather that than to get my foot chop. Cause he never had to do me this. Or he could have just gone and leave me. He could have just find somebody else and leave me. But I don?t know why he do something like this to me.?

There is no excuse for domestic violence and if Lambey does what she says she intends to do, then it will be a long time before Olivera puts his hand on anyone else anytime soon. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

Olivera was arrested and charged with Use of Deadly Means of Harm and Damage to property. He is scheduled to reappear in court on October twelfth. In the meantime Lambey says she does not know what she will do once released from the KHMH, but for the time being she will have to rely on friends to get around. Lambey is presently separated from her husband who is serving time for murder.