Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
A 63-year-old San Fernando woman is pleading for urgent help after what she claimed has been four years of terror at her home on Lady Hailes Avenue.
She decided to speak out after a violent early-morning attack yesterday that left her partner, Marvin Barkley, hospitalised.
Kissoondaye Khadaroo, who has lived at the property for 30 years, recalled that around 2.30 am a group of men from the neighbourhood hurled bottles and stones at her house.
Khadaroo and Barkley were asleep when they were jolted by loud banging at the door — something she described as a usual occurrence.
Barkley went outside and became involved in a heated confrontation, and police were contacted. She said officers responded but did not arrest anyone.
After they left, she claimed, the attack intensified.
“I not saying I don’t get vex, I do get vex because to be inside your house and is torture night and day, it not easy. I have been doing that for four years so when the police leave and gone, they started to pelt down the house and mash up everything and the mister come outside to go for the police.”
However, she said the men began pelting Barkley with large stones, but he still made his way to the police station. She added that officers told him to “go to the police station.”
She said Barkley is in significant pain, his arm is in a sling and he is on drips.
Khadaroo said the harassment began after her husband — who originally lived at the property — passed away.
She said her home has been repeatedly vandalised and items have been stolen.
“I can’t do nothing because when they coming out to beat me is 20 of them. I can’t fight with 20 people,” she lamented, adding that although police have responded several times, her attackers would claim that she was mentally unstable. Khadaroo said she once went to the Port-of- Spain police station seeking help and was advised to install surveillance cameras, but she does not have electricity.
“I can’t take no more,” she sobbed.
She believes she is being targeted to force her out so others can take over the property. While her late husband was the original occupier, she said she has lived there for three decades.
Lamenting that she has made about 15 reports to the police, she again appealed for help.
“It happening over and over and over. I can’t sleep in my house. Every time they see me they come knocking on this door. If you see the back, how they rip up the galvanize. I need help, is help I need.”
When Guardian Media visited the home, shattered bottles were scattered outside the front door and inside the house.
Khadaroo said she was supposed to be relocated as part of the San Fernando Waterfront Redevelopment Project. However, she said she has not received any updates for some time and continues to live in what she describes as “constant fear.”
She is now begging authorities to intervene before the situation escalates further.
When contacted, Southern Division Snr Supt Gavin Simon assured that the police are investigating the matter, and Constable Narace is expected to submit a report in seven days.
