Lucky to be alive
Sangeeta Gopaul
Sangeeta Gopaul

–West Dem girl recalls brutal attack

SANGEETA GOPAUL, 23, of Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara (WCD), who was brutally chopped by a 58-year-old man, Samuel Williams, said she “felt like it was the end”, but is counting her lucky stars to still be alive.

Gopaul was a sales clerk at a store at Parika at the time of the incident. She was in tears as she recounted the gruesome incident that occurred on November 21, 2017, in an interview with Guyana Chronicle on Monday at her mother’s home.
Mustering the courage to speak, she told Guyana Chronicle that the incident was the “scariest moment” of her life.

“Was Sunday and I went to work and arrived home around 09:30pm. When I entered my yard and reached by these two water drums, he came out and start chopping me,” the young lady related.
She said the gate to the yard is usually locked, but it was not locked that night and the lights were switched off.

“I fell on my knees after he did it and ran away. I managed to get up and went upstairs to my apartment which I shared with another family. I knocked on the door and when they opened [it], I fell in front of the door,” she said.

Although she was losing blood, she said her neighbours lingered for a while before they called her mother, Babita, to collect her.

Eventually, Gopaul said she was taken to the local cottage hospital, then to the West Demerara Regional Hospital before being transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Guyana Chronicle was told by Babita that her daughter had to spend the entire holiday season in the hospital.

Although she is still not back to full strength, Gopaul said her injuries are healing slowly and she is optimistic of a full recovery.

COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED
Prior to the incident, Williams reportedly terrorised Gopaul’s family. “It could have been avoided because he came to my workplace twice and threatened to kill me and I reported the matter to the police at Parika, but they never took the matter into hand,” the young lady said.

According to Gopaul’s mother, the man had threatened to kill her family several times because they chased him from their shop.
Williams was called a miscreant by several of Gopaul’s relatives and friends who were at Babita’s house during the interview.

“He would come to the shop to buy beer and so, then he gon cuss up and get on… we does can’t encourage them things here because we have a church right next door,” said Babita.
Williams, who reportedly did farming in the area, would usually boast about being rich and used those claims to belittle others who would be at the shop, villagers said.
Gopaul said she is not the only woman who is a victim of violence and calls on the police to treat these matters with the seriousness they deserve.

The young woman said oftentimes men who commit those crimes do not face the appropriate penalty, contending that they should be placed behind bars for the rest of their lives.

“I’m scared for my life because if somehow he gets off, he might want to do the same, because he did not kill me. Anyone who attempts to take the life of a women, or even someone else, should be behind bars for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Williams, a resident of Ocean Gardens, Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara (WCD), appeared in the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool, charged for unlawfully wounding Gopaul.
He was not required to plead to the indictable charge and was remanded to prison until January 9, 2018.

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