Trinidad: 32 elderly citizens killed in last 9 months

 (Trinidad Guardian) Fifty-two el­der­ly peo­ple aged 60 years and over have been mur­dered in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­tween the start of 2018 and now, with the first nine months of 2019 ac­count­ing for 32 of them.

This star­tling dis­clo­sure was made to Guardian Me­dia by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) on Tues­day.

Of the 32 cas­es this year, six peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and charged, one of which was a fam­i­ly mem­ber of one of the vic­tims.

In 2018, 20 mur­ders were re­port­ed, sev­en of which were de­tect­ed with ten peo­ple ar­rest­ed and charged, one of whom was a fam­i­ly mem­ber.

An ar­ti­cle pub­lished in the Sun­day Guardian on Sep­tem­ber 8, re­vealed that be­tween 2016 and Sep­tem­ber 8, eight per cent of the vic­tims of se­ri­ous crimes in this coun­try have been se­nior cit­i­zens.

In that ar­ti­cle, Janelle Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes, an of­fi­cer at the Vic­tim Wit­ness and Sup­port Unit (VW­SU) of­fi­cer ex­pressed con­cern about how vul­ner­a­ble the coun­try’s rapid­ly grow­ing el­der­ly pop­u­la­tion are to crim­i­nals “Eight per cent is too high!”

Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes, who spoke at a spe­cial ses­sion held on the oc­ca­sion of World Alzheimer’s Day which was held on Sep­tem­ber 21, said the da­ta shows that the el­der­ly have been vic­tims of as­sault by beat­ings, threats and breach of pro­tec­tion or­ders, mur­ders, rape and oth­er sex­u­al of­fences, bur­glar­ies and break-ins, fraud of­fences and lar­ce­ny.

For the same pe­ri­od of 2016- 2019, Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes said, some 229 old­er peo­ple were re­port­ed miss­ing and 53 of them have not yet been found.

Sta­tis­tics from the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work (IWRN) re­vealed that be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2018, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2019, more than 75 se­nior cit­i­zens have ei­ther gone miss­ing or killed in the most grue­some man­ner with at least 90 per cent of those in­ci­dents be­ing com­mit­ted by peo­ple known to them.

These shock­ing sta­tis­tics prompt­ed the IWRN’s pres­i­dent, Adri­ana San­drine Rat­tan to send a plea out to rel­a­tives of se­nior cit­i­zens to ur­gent­ly re­vis­it their liv­ing con­di­tions, “so as to en­sure that they are pro­vid­ed with added pro­tec­tion even if this change re­quires re­lo­cat­ing them to a space in the pres­ence of at least one trust­ed care­giv­er.”

It said: “Ex­tra vig­i­lance must al­so be ex­er­cised with re­gards to in­di­vid­u­als who per­form chores for the el­der­ly, and al­so in­volved in their fi­nan­cial af­fairs, as we have had pre­vi­ous in­stances where se­nior cit­i­zens were ei­ther robbed or killed by such in­di­vid­u­als.”

San­drine Rat­tan al­so urged se­nior cit­i­zens to re­port any strange oc­cur­rences and/or the pres­ence of any un­known in­di­vid­u­als seen around their sur­round­ings to the near­est po­lice sta­tion.

“Un­for­tu­nate­ly trust no longer re­sides in the hearts of many and for that, the most vul­ner­a­ble in our so­ci­ety be­come the eas­i­est tar­get,” San­drine Rat­tan said.

Ear­li­er this week, Chan­day Lal­loo, 64, of Gas­par­il­lo and Azard Ali, 60, of Bar­rack­pore were found bru­tal­ly mur­dered in their re­spec­tive homes.

 (Trinidad Guardian) Fifty-two el­der­ly peo­ple aged 60 years and over have been mur­dered in Trinidad and To­ba­go be­tween the start of 2018 and now, with the first nine months of 2019 ac­count­ing for 32 of them.

This star­tling dis­clo­sure was made to Guardian Me­dia by the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) on Tues­day.

Of the 32 cas­es this year, six peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and charged, one of which was a fam­i­ly mem­ber of one of the vic­tims.

In 2018, 20 mur­ders were re­port­ed, sev­en of which were de­tect­ed with ten peo­ple ar­rest­ed and charged, one of whom was a fam­i­ly mem­ber.

An ar­ti­cle pub­lished in the Sun­day Guardian on Sep­tem­ber 8, re­vealed that be­tween 2016 and Sep­tem­ber 8, eight per cent of the vic­tims of se­ri­ous crimes in this coun­try have been se­nior cit­i­zens.

In that ar­ti­cle, Janelle Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes, an of­fi­cer at the Vic­tim Wit­ness and Sup­port Unit (VW­SU) of­fi­cer ex­pressed con­cern about how vul­ner­a­ble the coun­try’s rapid­ly grow­ing el­der­ly pop­u­la­tion are to crim­i­nals “Eight per cent is too high!”

Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes, who spoke at a spe­cial ses­sion held on the oc­ca­sion of World Alzheimer’s Day which was held on Sep­tem­ber 21, said the da­ta shows that the el­der­ly have been vic­tims of as­sault by beat­ings, threats and breach of pro­tec­tion or­ders, mur­ders, rape and oth­er sex­u­al of­fences, bur­glar­ies and break-ins, fraud of­fences and lar­ce­ny.

For the same pe­ri­od of 2016- 2019, Se­bas­t­ian-Reyes said, some 229 old­er peo­ple were re­port­ed miss­ing and 53 of them have not yet been found.

Sta­tis­tics from the In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work (IWRN) re­vealed that be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2018, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2019, more than 75 se­nior cit­i­zens have ei­ther gone miss­ing or killed in the most grue­some man­ner with at least 90 per cent of those in­ci­dents be­ing com­mit­ted by peo­ple known to them.

These shock­ing sta­tis­tics prompt­ed the IWRN’s pres­i­dent, Adri­ana San­drine Rat­tan to send a plea out to rel­a­tives of se­nior cit­i­zens to ur­gent­ly re­vis­it their liv­ing con­di­tions, “so as to en­sure that they are pro­vid­ed with added pro­tec­tion even if this change re­quires re­lo­cat­ing them to a space in the pres­ence of at least one trust­ed care­giv­er.”

It said: “Ex­tra vig­i­lance must al­so be ex­er­cised with re­gards to in­di­vid­u­als who per­form chores for the el­der­ly, and al­so in­volved in their fi­nan­cial af­fairs, as we have had pre­vi­ous in­stances where se­nior cit­i­zens were ei­ther robbed or killed by such in­di­vid­u­als.”

San­drine Rat­tan al­so urged se­nior cit­i­zens to re­port any strange oc­cur­rences and/or the pres­ence of any un­known in­di­vid­u­als seen around their sur­round­ings to the near­est po­lice sta­tion.

“Un­for­tu­nate­ly trust no longer re­sides in the hearts of many and for that, the most vul­ner­a­ble in our so­ci­ety be­come the eas­i­est tar­get,” San­drine Rat­tan said.

Ear­li­er this week, Chan­day Lal­loo, 64, of Gas­par­il­lo and Azard Ali, 60, of Bar­rack­pore were found bru­tal­ly mur­dered in their re­spec­tive homes.