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Monday, July 21, 2025

Kidnap victim, 70, tells of stalking

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20140221

An el­der­ly woman tes­ti­fied yes­ter­day she was stalked and kid­napped by a man while on a trip from the mar­ket.Joyce Ali, 70, gave ev­i­dence yes­ter­day against Rachieal James, 35, who is charged with kid­nap­ping and as­sault­ing her with in­tent to cause griev­ous bod­i­ly harm.How­ev­er, in cross-ex­am­i­na­tion James' at­tor­ney Ains­ley Lucky put to her that James had on­ly tried to as­sist her when she tripped and fell on the pave­ment.Ali said that was not true.

The State, led by at­tor­neys An­gel­i­ca Teelucks­ingh and Trevor Jones, opened its case against James in the San Fer­nan­do First As­sizes on Thurs­day.It is al­leged that the in­ci­dent took place on De­cem­ber 23, 2007.Dur­ing her ev­i­dence be­fore Jus­tice Hay­den St Clair-Dou­glas and a nine-mem­ber ju­ry, Ali asked for a sweater, which was pro­vid­ed, be­cause she was feel­ing cold.

She re­called that around 4.50 am she left her Craig­nish, Princes Town, home and went to the Princes Town mar­ket to sell chadon beni, span­ish thyme and ochroes.Ali said she was walk­ing home around 5.30 am when she passed the ac­cused, to whom she said good morn­ing.She no­ticed him fol­low­ing her.On reach­ing the tasker road, Ali said, she ran across the road and when her left foot reached the pave­ment, she said, "all I feel was a hand across my neck and the oth­er hand was hold­ing my mouth."

The ac­cused, she said, told her he was car­ry­ing her to the Tasker Road to kill her. "I say, 'Oh God doh kill me, I have plen­ty mon­ey, take the mon­ey,'" she added.The ac­cused, she said, told her he did not want the mon­ey and start­ed chok­ing her with his hands.She plead­ed with him not to kill her be­cause she had a sick child.How­ev­er, Ali said he dragged her for about 100 feet."I was fight­ing up, like I did not have no strength, my body was just weak. Then I hear a voice say, 'let go the la­dy.'"

She al­so heard an­oth­er voice. Ali said the ac­cused pushed her down but he fell on top of her. She said he ran and two men chased af­ter him. They held him at an old build­ing, tied his hands and feet and called the po­lice, she said.PC David Si­mon, the charg­ing of­fi­cer, said when he ar­rived on the scene he saw the ac­cused tied up and ly­ing on the ground. He un­tied him, hand­cuffed him and took him and Ali to the po­lice sta­tion.

The State, which called one oth­er wit­ness, WPC Natasha Haynes, closed its case. The tri­al will con­tin­ue on Mon­day.


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