THE death of Bridgette Gangadin brings into focus three very important issues that must be urgently addressed. Firstly relatives and friends of battered persons must abandon the idea that abusers will eventually change if they shield them from prosecution, they need to think again this does not happen. This latest case is a painful reminder that when you continually forgive them thereby circumventing the law in the process the consequences are dire and this latest matter bears testimony to the fact. The law requires that abusers be punished severely for their evil acts.

Secondly, there is the need for more forensic pathologists in the country. While I must admit that Dr Nehaul is a professional person who is very competent in his field of endeavour one must realise that he is overworked, having to contend with autopsies all over the country and in the case of the Gangadin lady, one’s conclusion based on scientific evidence can be somewhat miscued judging his work load.

Lastly, the abusive husband has given us a story of his wife being suicidal and carrying out the threat by jumping out of his vehicle to an accidental death. Here again I am very critical of this story how could someone jump out of a speeding vehicle – this guy is a race car driver speeding is not foreign to him – and get crushed, it defies the centrifugal force of physics. Drunk and speeding tells of a person being bumped away from the speeding object not into it as he is suggesting. In any case this husband is counting on the fact that he can walk away free with a fine with the lenient laws that exist in Guyana at the moment. And this is the very same thing I am agitating, that stiffer penalties be administered to those found guilty.  Persons found guilty of causing accidental death from drunk driving should be given life sentences.