But while the 43-year-old mother of four is claiming that she burnt her husband after he dealt her a slap, his relatives are saying he was burnt while sleeping in the Sophia home the couple shared.
The 30-year-old man was lying in the Surgical Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital in obvious pain yesterday, with burns to his face and his upper chest bandaged. He refused to discuss the matter, but a woman who identified her as his mother said her son was burnt by his wife as he slept. She said too that the matter has since been reported to the police and they are in search of the woman, who is in hiding.
Speaking to Stabroek News by telephone yesterday the woman, who asked for her name not to be published, expressed remorse for her actions but said “frustration can make you do some things in life.” She admitted that since last Saturday’s incident she has been hiding, even though she knows the police are looking for her. She said she plans to hand herself over to police today despite her fears that she may be put in jail and her children, the youngest of whom is two years old, would be left unattended.
The couple has been together for nine years and married for four years. According to the woman, right around the time they got married, their once happy union became a living hell for her. “We were going good all the time until he meet this woman and then the mental and physical abuse start,” she said. She said the man commenced a relationship with a woman who living within walking distance and whenever she complained, he physically assaulted her.
“One time, he ran me with a garden fork and I had to run,.” the woman said, adding that while her husband would verbally and physically abuse her, she did not want to leave him. “I still love him,” she said.
Many reports were made to the Turkeyen Police Outpost about the abuse but the woman admitted that she did not follow through with them. “I would go to church and let them pray for me and for my marriage and when I talk about divorce they would tell me to continue to work with my husband,” she said. The woman had two children prior to meeting her husband. She bore him three children but one died.
The man has been out of the country for the past few months and returned to Guyana on December 14 last year. But his wife said she only saw him four days later. Last Friday night, according to the woman, the man slept out and went home around 9 am the next day, indicating that he had spent the night at the other woman.
She said he then asked to be intimate with her but she refused and “he start pulling and tugging at me.” According to the woman, for most of the day the man tried to get close to her but she kept refusing and continued to do her work. “He would go in the room and lie down then he would come back and start pulling at me and I telling he no all the time,” she said. Around 2 pm the woman said the man became upset and told her she was his wife cannot refuse him and he slapped her. “I was boiling porridge the same time and when he slap me like I was not thinking [and] I just pick up the pot and throw the porridge on he and run away,” she related.
She said as she ran down the stairs, her husband ran behind her and threatened to kill her. “The last time I saw him he was ducking he head in a tub of water,” she said.
The woman later sent her relatives to remove the children, who were left at the house. She has since sent a friend to see him at the hospital and he told the friend that he did not want to see her.
“I sorry for what I do but it was hard on me,” the woman said. “Madam, he was such a nice man but it is four years ago when he meet that woman he changed.”
She was undecided about whether she wanted the union to continue but said first he would have to want to see her and forgive her.
