Estranged husband held in brutal stabbing

Gender based violence is a subject often talked about in Belize…unfortunately because it’s so often practiced. The latest outrage occurred on Saturday night in Belize City. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

Marion Ali, Reporting
Tonight this young mother of two little boys is recovering from stab wounds she suffered at the hands of her estranged husband. The vicious attack occurred on Saturday evening at the steps of the overpass at the Pallotti junction in Belize City in front of the couple’s sons, aged three and one year old. News 5 visited the Female Surgical Ward at the K.H.M.H. and spoke with twenty-three year-old Gina Bood Jones.

Gina Bood Jones, Stabbed by Estranged Husband
“My husband mi com pik up di kids de fi ker deh wit hi da San’ Hill weh hi liv and ih com pik me up frahn my house da Belize yah and I jus’ help ah fi ker di kids deh tu di bus stop da Pallotti. I help ah with my son nap sack weh ih pak ih clothes eena.”

Marion Ali
“This da something weh normally happen? You would normally do this?”

Gina Bood Jones
“No. The reason why I left the relationship da because…”

Marion Ali
“No, I mean ker di kids.”

Gina Bood Jones
“Yeah, ih normally ker di kids deh. Every time ih come pik dem up I would walk deh da Pallotti mek deh ketch di bus and he jus’ mi di ask me fi wah second chance fi mek I com home.”

Marion Ali
“Oh you had left him?”

Gina Bood Jones
“Yeah. We separated fi like nine months now. I took my kids and I lef and ih just mi di as me fi wah second chance and I tell ah no because I noh wah go bak eena wah abusive relationship. I had my kids deh with me and he keep on asking me di same ting over an over and I just keep on telling ah no and stop annai mi. And he had my one year old son and he jus let go of him, drap ah pan di ground’. When I gone fi pik up my son da den ih start attack me. I mi think da hit ih hit me but when after wah while I start feel di kramp eena my baddy and si blood I realize, I seh dah wah knife ih have.”

This morning when we visited the scene, the bloodstains were still visible from the attack and Bood Jones says while she dodged a swipe to her throat, she did receive a huge cut to her face.

Gina Bood Jones
“When hi si di police di come I guess he just decide and jus tell me dat he wah kill me because if he kyaan have mi den nobody else wah have me. And he mi gwyne fi cut my troat, dis cut eena my face but dah weh I ben down like dis so ih jus cut craas mi face.”

Today Bood Jones says she feels lucky to be alive because she said he’s been living through eight years of abuse in silence and saw it getting worse.

Gina Bood Jones
“I always have tu walk out but because ah my two kids deh sometimes I go back. More dan one time I have tu lef di relationship caaz hi get tu demanding or waan abuse me and deh stuff like dat. So I always leave the relationship but dis time I decide dat I wah leave and noh wah return caaz I done si dat dad is mi wah happen.”

Marion Ali
“So he stabbed you where?”

Gina Bood Jones
“Ih stab me eena mi side, ah have wah stab eena mi head to di back but dat wound neva really pierce deep, and di cut along mi jaw; ih com all di way up to my ears.”

The stab wound to her side came within an inch of her left lung and doctors have attached a tube inside the wound to drain it in order to prevent infection. Her stepmother, Gloria Bood says she was tired of seeing her daughter going through the abuse.

Gloria Bood, Stepmother of Stabbing Victim
“Dis thing di happen over an over. My sons dem bout two time deh have tu go dah Gina house fi help fi tek out Gina because from di abusiveness from her husband. And I talk to Gina and I tell Gina because I fear di mi wah happen one day. So I tell Gina, Gina no mek ih di com bak round you. Put wah restraining order against ah because ih have wah attitude dat because he married tu ah he own ah, hi could du she weh hi waan, go weh ih waan…ih du wah latta tings fi show dat impression dat he dah di husband so he eena control. He’s very controlling-Gina dah now ih have tu do dis now, come now. The second tu di last event that deh have earlier this year he took out all ah Gina clothes outta di house weh Gina di pay rent fa, because he noh pay rent an things like dat, da Gina wan, an burn up everything because he don’t want Gina to go nowhere only from work to home.”

This afternoon Commander of Eastern Division Station, Senior Superintendent of Police Allen Whylie, said they have laid a series charges against the accused, thirty-two year old Clarence Jones.

Allen Whylie, Senior Superintendent of Police
“And sometime around 6:09 on Saturday the police officer who was working duty at the San Cas Precinct hear the call for assistance. He responded and he found Ms Jones who had been stabbed as well as cut to the face and her husband was also apprehended, there were their children present. Ms. Jones was escorted to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where I believe she is still presently hospitalised and Mr. Jones has since been arrested for the crimes of grievous harm, using threatening words, and we also arrested and charged him for attempted murder.”

During the news briefing, Senior Superintendent Whylie, expressed appreciation to News Five’s George Tillett for helping them recover the knife believed to have been used in the attack.

Allen Whylie
“Let me express our thanks to the members of the media who I understand went back on a stabbing scene that had occurred over the weekend on Saturday and as a result of their revisiting of the scene I understand that the weapon that we believe was used in that heinous assault was recovered.”