GRANNY GANG RAPED
THE search continued yesterday for two men who left an elderly Central Trinidad woman bleeding and in tears after they forced their way into her home, robbed and then took turns raping her on a bed during the early morning hours of Friday last.
Police said the weeping woman later begged nurses at a medical institution – where she was being treated – to keep her as she was too terrified to return to her own home following the brutal assault.
According to a police report, the 67-yearold woman was awakened from sleep at two o’clock Friday morning by two men dressed in dark clothing who shook her shoulders and said, “get up old lady!’ The men then demanded the woman’s pension money before ransacking the house and taking possession of several items. It did not end there. The men then took the woman back to a bedroom where they ordered her to strip. The two then took turns raping the woman even as she wept and begged them to stop.
After the assault, the men left the house and escaped by running away. The weeping woman crawled on the ground towards an open window on the southern end of the house. Pushing her head through the window and nearly falling out, the woman screamed for help. Police Constables Quashie and Ramoutar of Central Division, who were on mobile patrol, immediately responded to the screams and found the sobbing, hysterical woman sitting on the ground.
The officers comforted her as they radioed an All Points Bulletin advising all police on patrol in the area to be on the lookout for two men dressed in dark clothing. Up to press time, the human predators remained at large.
The woman was taken to a medical institution where she medically examined and later treated. The distraught woman, Newsday was told, begged nurses at the institution to keep her as she was terrified of returning home.
Police officers later promised her that they would institute patrols in the area and check in on her. Following the assault on the grandmother, it is understood that residents have formed themselves into a neighbourhood watch group to not only keep an eye on the woman, who lives alone, but to keep an eye on each other’s property as the rapists are still on the loose.
The rape of the elderly woman is the latest in a series of criminal acts to be perpetrated in the area as residents complained of robberies, break-ins and burglaries.
Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad said that all resources will be used to apprehend the suspects and assured residents of the area in Couva that more patrols would be stepped up in the area. He congratulated the residents for forming themselves into a neighbourhood watch group and urged others to follow suit and, “be each others keeper.” The victim is now staying at the home of relatives as she has maintained she is too afraid to return to her own home. Investigations are continuing.