Domestic violence has once again reared its ugly head

Dear Editor,
Domestic violence has again reared its ugly, deadly head; this time in the deaths of a young couple. That brutal murder-suicide took place in the Berbice village of Chesney. Now there are many theories swirling around as to the root causes leading up to this sad affair, many of which are mere hearsay testimony.
This is a really, really sad event, and the plethora of comments do not in any way make the situation better; rather, it makes things even worse, as the spit press takes its hold on society. What is pellucid is that domestic violence eventually leads to death, and that’s a fact that will not go away.
However, if we, as a society, collectively face it, we can possibly come up with some solutions that might serve as a template for future cases.
So let us review these latest domestic deaths at Chesney:
We are told that after years of abuse, the wife or female partner in question, Sabrina Lakhan, got a restraining order against her husband, Ramesh Ramdeen. This meant that Ramdeen could not be within 100 feet of her without being arrested and charged. We are told that despite the restraining order, the threats and verbal abuse on the woman continued, prompting her to make the request to a magistrate for her to go get her belongings and get out of the relationship.
Now, here is where the story becomes complicated as the danger signals keep flashing their red lights. Why would a woman who was safe under the protective order of a court want to violate that order and get next to the object of her potential danger?
Why would she want to get into the presence of her husband who issued the threat to kill her in the first place?
These are questions which make the order by the magistrate for her to get her clothing very suspect and stupid.
By making that request to go into the home to get her clothing, it meant that Sabrina Lakhan would now come within arm’s length of the man she “loved” as well as the man who could kill her. Thus this becomes another one of those episodes or matters of the heart at play here.
He having a motive, and at this opportune time, what could possibly happen? Would he suddenly love and cherish her, or would he kill her? As the situation unfolded, we now witness that a heinous murder-suicide was the end result.
If blame is to be apportioned, that blame should be placed squarely on the magistrate, who sent that woman straight to her death.
That magistrate should have been smart enough to advise Sabrina that her clothing would be picked up by her husband’s sister (whom she Sabrina clearly had confidence in) and delivered to her, but not to go there and be in the presence of the danger, Ramdeen.
This is exactly what this magistrate did, and she would have to live with that blunder for the rest of her life.
So the allegation by the relatives of Sabrina Lakhan that the Police are at fault for leaving her defenceless before an angry husband would not stand in a court of law. What a jury would hear is that she was finished packing and asked the Police to leave (the Police had to leave at some stage) and the eyewitness account of the sister-in- law is there to verify that. That is all that matters if ever that matter should reach the court.
I know that this is a very sad situation because another heinous crime has been perpetuated, and for this very reason, I call for the proper counselling training of all the parties involved. The magistrate ought to be so trained to know when there is potential danger in a ruling.
In this case, the magistrate should have known that she was about to set that woman up for her death. This is the sad, sick reality of the whole matter. I do hope that from now onwards, those who dispense the law would be more careful in the decisions they make when it comes to domestic violence issues of the kind.
Let the parties stay away from each for as long as it takes. Let them stay away from each other for a cooling off period. To allow warring parties to come together is not a good thing to do. I rest my case.

Respectfully,
Neil Adams