Says he instructed wife to lie about her whereabouts
The second caretaker of Noelina Prospere-Medor, the octogenarian who was found on Saturday after her UK-based son frantically tried to locate her, has surfaced saying his estranged wife lied about the woman’s whereabouts on his instructions.
Hubert Alexander visited Stabroek News yesterday saying he wanted his side to be heard and charged that the woman’s son deliberately tried to bypass and bully him. He said he returned from the interior late Friday and only heard then about reports in the press that the woman’s son had been looking for Noelina.
He said he wanted a confrontation with Sylvester Medor whenever he came to Guyana and so he told his wife not to give out any information on Noelina’s whereabouts. “So the only way was for her to withhold information and let me deal with the matter.” the man said.
He told this newspaper that it was in June this year that he and his wife had problems and separated and the only place he could have found accommodation was at 363 Craig, East Bank Demerara, the small apartment in which Medor was found last Saturday. He said he took the woman there with him because she was ultimately his responsibility and he felt he needed to take care of the woman who had raised him as a child.
However with his job as a chauffeur and miner in the interior, Alexander said about five days after he took the elderly woman with him to the Craig apartment he left for the interior. The night before his departure, however, he asked a woman to take care of the octogenarian. He said he meant to be away for a few days and so he handed her $5000 to cater for the woman’s meals.
The man said he returned at various times from the interior but the woman he hired to help started to make harsh financial demands and he was not satisfied with the way in which she took care of the woman. So he told her he no longer needed her services. He said he then hired another woman who looked after Noelina up to the day she was taken from the Craig apartment.
Alexander was furious about reports that his apartment was in a deplorable condition, saying that such was not the case. In his view the woman was comfortable while he slept in a hammock slung across the room. He said he felt the caretakers who knew of the situation and reported such to the media were deceitful. However when asked about his instructions for his wife to deceive both the media and the police about the woman’s whereabouts, Alexander said his wife had a right to honour him rather than the media or police because of the situation and especially since Noelina was his responsibility.
Alexander has since gone to the hospital to visit Noelina but said he was told by someone looking over her that he had to get permission before he is allowed to see her.
My intentions
Alexander told Stabroek News yesterday that when he took the initiative to move Noelina from her Albouystown place it was mostly because of the deplorable conditions there and after he found her in a pool of blood.
He said the woman told him that she needed someone to defend her since she and her husband had issues regarding the Albouystown property and she felt she was being taken advantage of. So she made him her Power of Attorney. The man said his intention was to get the woman’s property renovated and to take care of her.
He said he later was able to contact Sylvester Medor after he noticed the woman had a letter from him in 2003. He said the woman spent close to two months at the Palms Geriatric home before moving in with him and his wife in Middle Road La Penitence.
Alexander added that Medor sent sums of money initially but it was not enough to take care of the woman. According to him, at the same time they had started a process of completing a Deed of Gift which would have eventually made the woman’s son the legal owner of the Albouystown property.
He said he later learnt that Medor had gone behind his back and made numerous telephone calls to the attorney handling the matter. At the same time he stopped making contact with him or sending money for his mother’s maintenance.
“So ownership of the house rather than his mother’s well-being became his priority,” he argued.
Alexander insisted that because of his outstanding issues with Medor and the fact that the man did not want to trust him with the property, “I said when he come I want me and him to have a
confrontation first so my wife was told not to give any information about the woman’s whereabouts.”
Medor went public after he came to Guyana last month in search of his mother. Reports to the police as well as several newspaper articles stirred interest in the case and one of the woman’s caretakers led police to the apartment last Saturday. Noelina was taken to the GPHC where she remains. The Human Services Ministry has since said it will intervene to ensure that the woman is taken care of until her son returns to make permanent arrangements for her.
Alexander told this newspaper yesterday that that would only happen if he backs down since he has a document which is still valid and entrusts him with taking care of the woman.