SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Po­lice res­cued a 92-year-old woman yes­ter­day from what her neigh­bours called ‘A house of hor­ror’.

The el­der­ly woman was car­ried by an of­fi­cer from the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion af­ter they broke down the door to her El Do­ra­do house to find her alone and sur­round­ed by piles of garbage.

One of her neigh­bours, La­toya Greaves, had launched a cam­paign on so­cial me­dia ear­li­er in the day, call­ing for po­lice and the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment to res­cue the woman.

Greaves said that on Sun­day she was alert­ed by a rel­a­tive that the woman was ly­ing un­re­spon­sive in the rain out­side her home.

“My cousin de­scribed the house to me and we came back to­geth­er. When we got here she was just ly­ing in the rain, with the dogs bark­ing around her and sur­round­ed by garbage,” Greaves re­called.

Greaves said she con­tact­ed po­lice and an am­bu­lance but when the first re­spon­ders ar­rived, one of the woman’s close male rel­a­tives re­fused to give them per­mis­sion to take her for treat­ment.

“He was car­ry­ing on, say­ing she doesn’t want to go any­where, she good, she doesn’t need any­thing. It is me who in­sist­ed that they take her to the hos­pi­tal. When she got in the am­bu­lance, I asked her if she was hun­gry and she said yes, she was very hun­gry,” Greaves said.

She said the woman bore sev­er­al marks of vi­o­lence on her body and seemed to have not been bathed in sev­er­al days.

“Her skin was like you could take a knife and peel off the dirt. Her clothes were dirty, her hair was mat­ted like it had not been combed in months…she just looked like no one was tak­ing care of her at all.”

Greaves said the woman’s rel­a­tive would of­ten lock her in the house for days on end, as he roamed the streets of El Do­ra­do.

“Every­body ac­cus­tomed to see­ing him walk­ing all the road pick­ing up garbage. I guess now we know what he was do­ing with it. And when she is here alone, she has noth­ing to eat, noth­ing to drink and she re­mains in her dirty clothes and pam­pers for days.”

She vis­it­ed the woman at the hos­pi­tal every day and Greaves said she saw a dras­tic change in the woman’s de­meanour.

“She was live­ly, talk­ing, walk­ing about and try­ing to clean up all around her. She told me all about how her mar­riage and how she used to live be­fore. She seemed elo­quent and well-ed­u­cat­ed.”

But Greaves said she was hor­ri­fied to learn the woman was dis­charged in­to the care of her al­leged abuser on Wednes­day morn­ing.

“A neigh­bour called and told me they saw her rel­a­tive drag­ging her in­to the yard this morn­ing. I wait­ed a while, came across and jumped the wall to get in­side. She was there, among all the garbage…she was wear­ing pam­pers that were soiled, I don’t know how long she had it on. She said she had not eat­en for the day.”

The inside of the house of the 92-year old woman who was rescued yesterday.

MICHAEL RAMSINGH

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the house yes­ter­day.

From the out­side, the high con­crete walls con­ceal the true con­di­tion of the prop­er­ty. Through a small pedes­tri­an gate, piles of garbage were scat­tered all around. The con­crete steps lead­ing to the up­per part of the house were clear of any garbage but to walk in­side meant nav­i­gat­ing large pieces of wood, heaps of pa­per, plas­tic and oth­er de­bris. In­side the house was not much dif­fer­ent. Greaves said the woman spent most of her days and nights in a chair, as her bed was al­so cov­ered in garbage.

Through­out the house, there were nar­row tracks cut in­to the garbage, seem­ing­ly to al­low the woman and her male rel­a­tive to walk.

Greaves said the kitchen had no clean dish­es and was lit­tered with plas­tic bot­tles of wa­ter.

“She has no plates, no cups, no spoons…the stove doesn’t work, the fridge doesn’t work. This woman can’t help her­self to make a cup of hot tea even if she want­ed to.”

When of­fi­cers from the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion ar­rived, they seemed shocked by the woman’s liv­ing con­di­tions.

When the woman an­swered their calls, the of­fi­cers helped her to a chair and spoke to her for sev­er­al min­utes. Then, af­ter sev­er­al calls to their su­pe­ri­ors, PC Singh lift­ed the woman and car­ried her to the po­lice ve­hi­cle.

The of­fi­cers said she would be tak­en to the hos­pi­tal to re­ceive treat­ment for sev­er­al open wounds on her leg be­fore be­ing tak­en to a safe house.

The garbage laden house where a ninety two year old woman was rescused from on Taylor Street Extension in Tunapuna, yesterday.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

Head of the TTPS’ Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence Unit, ASP Claire Guy-Al­leyne told Guardian Me­dia she be­came aware of the woman’s plight af­ter Greaves post­ed sev­er­al videos to so­cial me­dia. She said her unit was mon­i­tor­ing the woman at the hos­pi­tal and they too were sur­prised when she was dis­charged.

Guy-Al­leyne said when Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed her on Wednes­day af­ter­noon to in­form her that the woman was back in the house, she im­me­di­ate­ly ac­ti­vat­ed a team from the Tu­na­puna Po­lice Sta­tion and be­gan arrange­ments for a safe house for her.

She said the unit will con­tin­ue to work close­ly with the woman in the com­ing days.