British couple Peter and Murium Green, said in an interview carried in the UK that it was "an affront to justice" that charges against their alleged attacker, Clint Alexis, had been dropped. The Greens were brutally attacked by a cutlass wielding intruder at their Tobago home in 2009. Peter, who was blinded in one eye and Murium, who had part of her jaw cut off, are still recovering from their injuries and were unable to travel to Tobago to give evidence at the trial earlier this week.
An angry Peter Green said: "It's an absolute disgrace that a human being is walking about somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago that has inflicted this on us -and maybe lots of other people as well...It's absolutely outrageous. "I don't know whether this man is guilty or not, but it is certainly an affront to justice that he has not been tried," he added. The couple, of Wellington, Somerset, say they still bear deep physical and mental scars from their horrifying ordeal.
They reacted to the development after British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago Eric Jenkinson confirmed to UK media that a court had discharged the two attempted murder charges against 27-year-old Alexis because of lack of evidence. "The authorities want us to go back over there but they do not consider the mental, as well as physical scars we have," Peter Green said. "I woke up to find the machete had gone into my brain and opened up my skull. Then I woke up from a coma three weeks later-what can I possibly tell them about that night?
"The machete hit my wife's lower mandible so hard it dislocated it. "It was a complete miracle that we both survived, now we want someone brought to justice." Murium, who has a large scar running across her face where the assailant sliced off part of her jaw, said:"Everyday ever since I got back to England, I've looked in the mirror and I've damned that man to hell. "This has been dismissed and what does that mean? Because of the distance between here and there you just don't know. So-we start again, I guess."
The couple, who say they have spent thousands of pounds of their life savings on their own care, claim they have not dared to set foot in Tobago since the attack, after death threats against them were written in on-line blogs.
Alexis was arrested last year and charged with two counts of attempted murder. When the case was called in the Scarborough Magistrates' Court this week, Senior Magistrate Annette McKenzie was presented with a medical certificate which stated the Greens were unable to travel to Tobago. A request was made for the couple to give evidence via video conferencing from England. Police prosecutor Sgt Dunstan Campbell was told to call his first witness, but was unable to do so and offered no further evidence. As a result, the matter was dismissed. High Commissioner Jenkinson, in an interview with UK media, said: "The magistrate, as I understand it, has basically said there was not enough evidence and in part wanted Mr and Mrs Green to come back here. I'm disappointed that it's reached this stage.
"They went through an extraordinary experience. I saw them after the attack and it was horrific. They chose not to come back. I can understand that. "It's taken a long time to get this far and the judicial system here is notoriously slow, but we're pressing all the buttons that we can." Peter Green now says he would be prepared to face a court once his mental and physical injuries have healed more. "If they are going to make me suffer by making me get on a plane and go to Tobago-then I will do it. I'm not ready yet, but hopefully I will be this year."