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The Dragonfly Centre is committed to the elimination of domestic violence against women and their children by providing victim friendly services that promotes the empowerment of survivors; through advocacy, public awareness and education and community based initiatives.

Vision: The Dragonfly Centre envisions a world free of violence against women and their children and social justice for all. We are founded on the vision and belief that every person has the right to live in a safe environment free from violence and the fear of violence and strive to work collaboratively with the community to provide victim friendly services to support domestic violence victims, survivors to the stage of thriving.

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Friday, January 6, 2012

Ex-wife: He used to beat me all the time

Ex-wife: He used to beat me all the time

'Dragged naked in the road...'

By Nikita Braxton-Benjamin nikita.braxton@trinidadexpress.com

THE EX-WIFE of the man charged with the killing of four-year-old Amy Annamanthudo yesterday testified of the abuse she faced at the hand of the murder accused during their 15-year relationship.
Lou-Ann Davis yesterday spoke of being beaten with a piece of wood and cutlass and dragged naked in the road after jumping through a window to escape from King.
"I divorced him in 2006 because he was abusive to me while I was married to him...He used to beat me all the time," Davis said, as she gave evidence in the San Fernando First Criminal Court before Justice Anthony Carmona.
King is charged with beating his step daughter to death on May 15, 2006.
Back in October, the State's main witness Andre Rocke testified that he peeped through a hole and saw King hitting the child 20 to 30 times as she hung by her hair at King's house.
Pathologist Hughvon Des Vignes gave evidence that Amy suffered lacerations, tears, bleeding scrapes and bruises to her brain, eye, neck, chest, shoulder, hand, heart, lungs, spleen, liver, adrenal gland, kidney, abdomen, pelvic area, upper, mid and lower back and bottom.
Yesterday, Davis spoke of an incident of abuse she suffered from King 10 years ago.
She said she had separated from him and was staying in one room at a house she rented from a man for whom she cooked and cleaned. The couple's daughters were staying at King's place as Davis said she had nowhere else for them to live. Davis and King had two daughters together; baby Amy was Davis' daughter and King's step-daughter.
Three days after Davis left King back in 2001, he came over to her one-room place.
"He told me the children were crying and told me if I could come up the road and talk to them."
Davis said she got ready and when she met King by the gate, he slapped her on the face.
She testified that he took her back upstairs, kicked down the front door and carried her in the room to pack her clothes.
"All that time in the room, he was beating me with a piece of wood. A two by four," Davis said.
She said while they headed back to his home, King threw away the piece of wood and had a knife in his hand.
"We walked back to where he lived, he locked the door behind me and told me he had a bottle of kerosene and a lighter by the stove," Davis said.
She told the court King threatened to burn her.
"He carried me in the bedroom and told me to take off all my clothes...He began to take off his clothes and while (he was) undressing, I jumped through the window, naked. I twisted my right ankle," Davis said.
"Marlon King came across by the neighbour with a cutlass in his hand. He grabbed me by my hair and I fell to the ground and he start dragging me (to his) home in the road. He hit me two lash with the cutlass in my belly," she said.
The mother of King's children said that men who were working across the road "picked up stones and pelt him to let me go."
She said she was released and neighbours gave her clothes and she went to the Marabella police station.
She testified that she spent two months in hospital following the attack.
Davis also yesterday recalled an incident in which she said King made her perform a sexual act on him after waking a one-year-old female from sleep to look on.
She said she separated from King back in 2001 and divorced him five years later.
Davis remarried in 2008.
She said after their separation, a private arrangement was made where King would keep his two daughters on weekends.
But she noticed different strangers at the house whenever she went to drop off the children. She asked King about this.
"He told me he would lend out the place to people when they came by him to have sex there...He told me when that happened he would carry the children by his father to spend time and then come back down the road. He said he would lend it out on weekends," Davis said.
She said she was uncomfortable with this but continued to take the children there to keep the peace with King.
"If I didn't carry the kids, he would come down by me and make a set of noise," she said.
The children are now teenagers.
Defence attorney El Farouk Hosein told Davis she was not telling the truth and she was never beaten by King.
"I live happy for two years with Marlon King and after that it was downhill," she told the court during cross examination.
The trial is expected to continue today where State attorney Mauriceia Joseph said she would close the prosecution's case.

Source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Ex-wife__He_used_to_beat_me_all_the_time-136786793.html

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