– tracks attacker to Trinidad
Four years after she was brutally attacked with acid by the former reputed wife of her then boyfriend, Joann Lynch is still crying out for justice and she is accusing members of the Guyana Police Force of frustrating the process and “sending her round in circles” in her quest.
Lynch, a mother of one, celebrated her 29th birthday yesterday. While she is happy to be alive and can still play a meaningful part in her eight-year-old daughter’s life, every time she looks in the mirror she is cruelly reminded of the day in June 2006, when her life changed forever.
She refuses to describe herself as someone who is vengeful, but Lynch feels that she is owed justice and that Onika Sinclair, her attacker, should pay for throwing acid at her. Sinclair, a few months after committing the act, was charged in absentia, since she had fled soon after committing the crime. She has never been arrested.
In the years between sitting around and waiting for the police to arrest Sinclair and travelling back and forth to Trinidad to seek medical treatment, Lynch became her own sleuth and managed to track her attacker to Trinidad. It was not difficult, as Sinclair was bold enough to open an account on the social network site Facebook, which led Lynch to learn that she was in Trinidad. Late last year, using a fake profile, Lynch “friended” Sinclair on Facebook and was able to learn more about her, including photographic evidence of the woman’s busy social life.
But while locating Sinclair may have been easy, Lynch soon realized getting the Guyana Police Force to act was a mountain she had to climb and today she is no closer to reaching the top. She told Stabroek News that police ranks were aware since last December that her attacker was in Trinidad but made no effort to have her arrested. “It is very frustrating and I did not want to come to the media but I waiting and waiting and the police not doing nothing, they only have me going around in circles. I’m going from one officer to the next and nothing is happening. It is very hard for me. I don’t know why they treating me like this,” she said.
She said what is more difficult is the fact that police officers in Trinidad are
ready to act but said they need official correspondence from Guyana informing them that the young woman is wanted here. Lynch has a friend in Trinidad who has been in contact with police there who say while they are anxious to make the arrest, their counterparts in Guyana are still to send the documentation. Lynch is afraid that Sinclair may flee Trinidad shortly and never be arrested.
Attempts to get a comment from the police yesterday were unsuccessful.
File can’t be found
While Lynch had given a statement to the police along with other witnesses shortly after the attack occurred, she has recently been forced to recount the terrifying incident to the police on two occasions, after ranks at Bartica said the case file could not be found. She said when Sinclair was charged, the matter was read in the Bartica Magistrates’ Court and the prosecutor asked that the matter be put down indefinitely. Upon reflection, Lynch is questioning why an arrest warrant was not issued for Sinclair and why she was not tried in her absence, since all of the witnesses were available. Had this been done successfully, Lynch said, whenever Sinclair was arrested she would have gone to jail instead of facing trial, where she (Lynch) would have to re-live the day of the incident all over again.
After she was unable to get any assistance from the Bartica police on how the young woman could have been arrested, Lynch said, she sought the assistance of officers in Georgetown and got a conference with a senior officer at Eve Leary. He, in turn, sent her to another officer. She said when the second officer saw her face, he exclaimed and said persons cannot commit such heinous crimes and walk free. She was sent to Bartica Police Station and asked to give another statement since the original file with all the statements could not be found. She gave the statement and waited but got no word from the police. Upon inquiring, she was told the officer-in-charge, to whom she had given the statement, had been transferred and a new officer was installed. That new officer had to take a new statement and a tired and frustrated Lynch went through the process again. However, it appears to have been in vain as she is still waiting for action.
Lynch recalled that it was frustration that prompted her to start looking for Sinclair on the internet, since she was initially told that the woman had fled to the US. Later, she was told that Sinclair was working at a bakery in Trinidad.
After finding her on Facebook, Lynch said, it was difficult to see her attacker enjoying life to the fullest—attending various parties and other events—while she was struggling to make it from one day to the next. Eventually, she could not bear the pain anymore and she sent a photograph of her burnt face to Sinclair and asked her if she remembered the girl she burnt. Immediately, the Facebook profile was shut down. However, reports indicate that Sinclair remains in Trinidad. “What is more hurtful is that I am spending my own money for justice… I am spending money to go to Trinidad and every time I have to come to town to see the police is my money spending,” Lynch said.
‘Traumatized’
Lynch’s eight-year-old daughter, who was four when her mother was attacked, is scared to walk with her down the road or for her to visit her school. “She is very traumatized and is scared for me to go to the school because all the children would crowd me and look at me or when we walk down the road people would stare,” she said. For her, this situation is perhaps the saddest part of her life.
And as for the man Lynch was with at the time she was burnt, he is no longer part of her life. Mark Moore is now in the US with his two children (borne to him by Sinclair) and he has a young fiancée in Guyana. Shortly after Lynch was burnt, Moore had told Stabroek News that he would stick by her and assist her with everything she needed.
Lynch said those were just words and when she reflects on the situation, she surmised that he may have been scared of how her relatives would have reacted and as such he stuck around for a while. “But you know, I found out that he knew where she [Sinclair] was all the time and while she was hiding out in Guyana he use to go and sleep at the house,” Lynch explained.
While Sinclair’s relatives had claimed Lynch tormented her before the incident, she denies this and said it was Sinclair who travelled to Bartica from time to time. On the day of the attack, when Sinclair gained access to Moore’s apartment where Lynch was, it was the landlady’s sister who gave her the spare key.
After she committed the act, she was assisted in her escape to Georgetown.
Lynch has also had to put up with being accused of calling the woman’s young children in the US and threatening them.
She denies this and says she has been threatened by Moore and his relatives but she feels these allegations are a ploy to get her to stop pursuing the matter with Sinclair. “Mark engage the 19-year-old three months after we break up and one day I called him and ask him for some money because I can’t work and you know what he tell me? ‘You have nothing more to get from me. You caused this on yourself.’”
Lynch vows not to give up, saying it is not just because she wants to see her attacker behind bars, but for her daughter.
‘A normal life’
She said she also feels she has much more to offer society. She was a budding designer when the incident occurred and today even though she has lost one eye, she is back to designing and receives orders from the supportive Bartica community. “But I still get nightmares. Sometimes I get up in the night and I am so scared… But things are getting better. A lot of people in Bartica show me love. Many of them thought I would have committed suicide but now they see I am still here they show me love. I am now going out with my friends again and trying to live a normal life,” she said.
A young woman in the UK, Katie Piper, went through a similar experience when her face was also disfigured by a man who was paid by her former boyfriend. A documentary was made from the incident and many news articles were written following the jailing of the attacker and the man who paid him. Lynch heard of the incident and contacted Piper and the two became friends. Piper informed media outlets in the UK about Lynch’s case and she was approached about making a documentary featuring her story.
She has since signed contracts with Mentorn Media and South West News Service and hopes that by year end she would be given the opportunity to travel to the UK, where she would be paid for the documentary. She plans to use the money for re-constructive surgery.
But even as she thinks about making her face better, her quest for justice remains a burning desire.
