….to get assistance to reopen her business

THANKS to the efforts of the You Are Not Alone (YANA) Foundation, and Women and Gender Equality Commissioner, Vanda Radzik, $500,000 was raised to provide bail money for abused mother of three, Melissa Playter, who was charged with murder for killing her abuser back in 2018.

Total donations surpassed the target by over $200, 000 and the additional money will be used to help Playter to reopen her business, at her home, so that she can start making a livelihood to take care of her children.

Playter’s application for bail is expected to be heard next week, to clear the way for her to continue her life as she awaits her trial.

Playter has been on remand since December 2018, when she was charged with the murder of 38-year- old Victor Roberts– her abuser and father of her youngest child. The alleged incident took place on December 2; at the time, Roberts was abusing Playter with a cutlass when he was stabbed with a knife.

The knife from the stabbing was bought by Roberts just the week before, when he told Playter he was going to use it to kill her.

Playter had appeared unrepresented in December 2018, when she was originally charged with murder; however, her lawyer, Sanjeev Datadin, was able to bring the charge down to manslaughter earlier this year, which enabled Playter to be eligible for bail, which was set at $500, 000.

Playter was not required to plead to the capital offence; and broke down in tears during her arraignment and began crying even louder when she heard that the she was being remanded to prison.

President of YANA, Melissa Atwell, said it was shortly after Playter’s story appeared in the news that persons contacted her to reach out and seek help for Playter.
Being a survivor of an abusive relationship, Atwell said the situation resonated with her and she immediately went about trying to seek donations to source a lawyer to represent Playter.

She reached out to Datadin, who regularly represents the Foundation. Atwell said when she conveyed to Datadin the difficulties the organisation was having with gathering funds, he agreed to take on the case pro-bono.

“It was sad that she had no legal representation and she was charged with murder just like that. I don’t know if I hadn’t step in at the time what would have happened to her. She felt as though she had nobody. We managed to raise the 40,000; he said don’t worry about he, [he] would do it pro bono,” Atwell shared.

Atwell noted that Playter’s case is just another example of how enough is not being done to assist abused women in Guyana, notwithstanding the issue being a very prevalent one.
“I definitely think that it was unfair to her given the circumstances how it happened, because the neighbours were there and everybody would’ve come forward and said what he was doing. That particular day he was choking her and going in and out of the house beating her. When they first arrested her, they had to put her on suicide watch because of how she was behaving. Her daughter at the time was just a couple months old,” Atwell shared.
Earlier this year, Datadin was able to get Playter’s charge reduced to manslaughter, which enabled her to post bail; Atwell said she then tried to gather donations to raise the bail money. Atwell had raised approximately $200,000 when Radzik stepped in and was able to gather the donations through her own charitable foundation, Advanzer.
Radzik was also able organise counselling for Playter once she is out.