(Trinidad Guardian) Police have arrested a 31-year-old Diego Martin man who allegedly beat a Venezuelan woman with a wheel spanner after she threatened to end their relationship and then videotaped her injuries on Tuesday.
A video showing the 19-year-old woman’s injuries and his abuse was shared on social media on Wednesday, prompting an almost immediate investigation and outrage from members of the public.
Reports stated that around 10 pm Tuesday, the woman was at her Ramai Trace, Debe home with her 31-year-old boyfriend.
It was alleged that she attempted to end her relationship with the suspect and he used the wheel spanner to beat her.
He then recorded a video of the woman with his cell phone. In the video, the man can be heard instructing the woman, who is wearing only underwear, to come closer to him.
“Aye! Girl, I not talking too much right? Do what I tell yuh girl and doh tell meh (expletive) nothing girl because yuh like (expletive) thing. Yuh understand? Ent you know I is ah (expletive) madman. So whappen? Why you don’t respect me? Why? All I does ask for is you respect me.”
The woman could be heard in the background faintly answering. The suspect then zoomed in on the woman’s battered face and said, “You see how nice you looking? Beautiful.”
He tells her, “Come let yuh family see how yuh looking.”
He then orders her to kneel on the floor and warns her against not listening to him. The woman walks across the room and he puts the camera close to her bruised face and tells her “You see how nice you looking?”
Police Commissioner Gary Griffith confirmed the suspect was arrested at a house at Reform Village, Gasparillo shortly after 2 pm.
Griffith said police have also learnt there were several other women at the house where the woman was beaten.
“When I saw the video I asked our intelligence units to use their resources to pinpoint exactly where this man was,” Griffith said.
He said the man has several different addresses, in Tomato Trace, Diego Martin and Ramai Trace, Debe, and the Special Operations Response Team had been checking those addresses before he was arrested.
Guardian Media has since learnt the woman was hospitalised for severe trauma, cuts and bruises from the beating.
Griffith said eight Venezuelans, who are in the country illegally, were found in the house at the time of the man’s arrest and also taken into custody.
A statement from the Police Service thanked the public for sharing the information on social media to bring attention to the criminal activity.
In an exercise coordinated by Snr Supt Zamsheed Mohammed and Insp Persad, San Fernando CID led by Cpl Pulchan and the elite unit went to Reform Village around 2.30 pm where the suspect had another apartment.
Investigators said the woman has been in Trinidad for a year and the Immigration Division will check to determine if she is here legally.