Woman severely beaten by husband refuses to press charges

…tells Police injuries were from a fall

The 33-year-old woman who was severely beaten by her 24-year-old husband last week, resulting in her being hospitalised, has refused to press charges for the life-threatening beating she received.

The Corentyne woman is seeking to get back with a man who almost killed her last week. The flogging was the latest in a series of beatings which resulted in the mother of three having to seek medical attention.
On Friday evening the woman ran out of the hospital after she was taken to the medical institution by relatives. A relative told this publication that Swaswattie Etwaru took her own discharge despite advice by medical personnel.
Etwaru, also called “Ramona”, of Lot 33 Hampshire, Corentyne, on Saturday said she was beaten by her husband.
According to her, the 24-year-old man that she has been living with for the past three years met her on the road one week ago as she was walking home from church and broke a branch and started beating her.
At home, she said, she was lashed in the head with a piece of wood.
However, according to Etwaru, that three-hour beating was not her first. In fact, it has been a constant feature in their three-year relationship.
Just over a week ago she suffered a fractured rib during one of her weekly physical encounters with the father of her one-year-old child, for whom she sometimes has to seek assistance from neighbours to provide food for.
According to Etwaru, she only reported the physical abuse once to the police and then begged the Magistrate not to penalise him and refused to give any evidence.
“Steady he beating me. He went to jail and come out back… he tie me up and do me all sort of things, still living with he,” she revealed.
Asked about the rationale behind the decision, Etwaru told Guyana Times that she wanted to make a life with the father of her child for whom she is also five months pregnant.
“I don’t do wrong things. I go to church and try to live a good life with him and he still does beat me.”
She detailed that when he is working, he would give her money and then beat her a few days later for money to purchase cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.
When he is not working, Etwaru revealed that she would beg for money so that she might not be brutalised.
On Monday Police investigators went to the home of the beaten woman to get a statement but to their surprise she informed the officers that her injuries were as a result of a fall.
However, the woman’s 15-year-old son said that he witnessed Tuesday’s beating while his 19-year-old sister said she was forced to remove from the house because of the physical and verbal abuse meted out to her mother.
“For the past couple months they living together and she keep getting licks. I keep telling her to leave him but she don’t want to.”
Frustrated with the situation, the woman’s teen daughter said that this is the last time she will be supporting her mother through the abuse.
“I am not able with this anymore. I weary and fed up talking. Fuh the month is like six times he beating she. If he go and play (gamble) and he lose, he beat she. I can’t take this anymore,” the 19-year-old related.
The teenager said when she inquired why her mother was putting up with the abuse, she was told it was because of her love for him.
“I say mummy you have to put away love. It don’t make sense that you living with a man that you love so much and he beating you; that is dog love,” the teen related. She said that her stepfather has threatened to kill her mother in the past.
Members of the community told this publication that they are afraid of the 24-year-old man, who Police arrested on Saturday evening. One neighbour said that her family has had to rescue Etwaru on a number of occasions.
“They don’t have a day or a week that passes without him beating her. From day to day she comes asking for $100, milk, pampers, some rice or some oil or something from the people living here right through to the next street. Everybody knows of the screaming, the yelling, the insults, the cursing…” the neighbour related.
According to the neighbour, a few weeks ago she was out of the country and upon her return, she heard that Etwaru’s ribs were fractured.
“I went there to see her and she can hardly walk. The week before they were marks all over her body and the face was swollen. Prior to that she was also badly injured. It is so much that it is difficult to keep an update on the beatings she receives weekly or every other day,” the woman told this publication.
Despite the injuries, Etwaru said that she is willing to stay with her partner.
First Lady Sandra Granger, encouraged persons to speak out against all forms of violence, specifically domestic violence.
According to her, reported incidents of domestic violence by an intimate or previous intimate partner rose from 74.8 per cent in 2011 to 89 per cent in 2017, with females accounting for an upward 80 per cent of the victims. It was noted that three-quarter of these gender-based violence cases stem mostly from Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Meanwhile, Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus during a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) media sensitisation forum on the coverage of domestic abuse and sexual offences recently explained that persons affected by domestic violence or abuse who are not receiving professional services from members of the Guyana Police Force can approach the Magistrate’s Court directly, and a charge can be filed there against the perpetrator.
Speaking of Etwaru’s case, Managing Director of The Caribbean Voice, Bibi Ahamad in an invited comment said that Etwaru is a typical domestic abuse victim, who is living in fear, with false hope and lack the necessary coping skills. She advised that Etwaru should receive professional help.