NURSE STRANGLED

Note from the poster: Strangulation is a personal crime, it is unclear at this time if this case is related to domestic violence.

Body of 32-year-old missing woman found in car trunk at hospital

By Susan Mohammed susan.mohammed@trinidadexpress.com

Story Created: Jan 30, 2014 at 10:04 PM ECT

Story Updated: Jan 31, 2014 at 11:58 AM ECT 

 

She was strangled and beaten to death.

A 32-year-old Barrackpore nurse who was missing has been found dead in the trunk of her car parked in a hospital car park. 

Police said the body of Jayanti Dubay-Ramrattan, a mother of one, of Wilson Road, was found by crime scene investigators (CSI) while examining her Hyundai Elantra. 

Dubay-Ramrattan had worked at St Ann’s Hospital for ten years and also at a private hospital in Cocorite. 

The Express was told that on Monday, a relative of Dubay-Ramrattan saw her Hyundai Elantra in the car park near the Accident and Emergency Department of the San Fernando General Hospital. 

However, it was only Wednesday night her family was informed of the whereabouts of the car. 

The family in turn informed the police and at around 4 a.m. yesterday, police officers towed it to the Barrackpore Police Station. 

At the police station when CSI officers opened the trunk of the car, they found Dubay-Ramrattan’s body. 
 
Dubay-Ramrattan and her husband, Ramchand Ramrattan, have a four-year-old daughter. 

A close male relative who is assisting the police in their investigations told investigators yesterday that on Wednesday, he went to the St James Police Station to report her missing. 

He informed them he last saw her at her home on the night of last week Thurs­day when she was preparing to leave for work and he went to bed. 

He also told investigators that the next day, he received a text from her, telling him she was going to lime with other nurses. However, after he was unable to contact her for several days, on Wednesday, he told police he went to her workplace in search of her. He said co-workers told him she had not reported to work for several days. 

The relative said he was told by St James police officers that the report should be lodged at the Barrackpore Police Station. He later went to that police station and lodged a missing person’s report. 

The relative was assisting homicide detectives in their investigation yesterday. 

An autopsy on Ramrattan’s body, performed yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, found she was strangled and suffered cerebral cranial trauma. 

The autopsy was performed by Dr Hughvon Des Vignes. 

Speaking to the media at the Forensic Science Centre, her mother, Rehana Dubay, said her daughter was pursing a bachelor of arts degree in nursing and had recently topped the Caribbean in one of her courses. 

Dubay also said her husband died in November. 

Vesham Pysadee, a cousin of the deceased, said he and his brother Joey did not know she was missing until Wednesday. 
Pysadee, a retired police officer, said when he was told she was missing, he made enquiries and was told the car was at the hospital car park, and he informed the police. 

The murder toll for the year up to last night was 45, compared with 33 for the same period in 2013.

Source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/NURSE-STRANGLED-242861181.html

Domestic violence needs swift response

Published: Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Bobbie-Lee Dixon

 

Domestic violence continues to escalate because of the “go-slow” approach by the criminal justice system in dealing with the issue. That, coupled with poor intervention strategies, is why lives are still being lost to domestic violence. That’s the conclusion of criminologist Renee Cummings. She said the criminal justice responses to domestic violence and interpersonal violence were flaccid. “We need focused, long-term intervention strategies to treat with domestic violence before it leads to domestic homicide,” Cummings said. “On a national level, we have also got to develop violence-reduction strategies to reduce domestic violence and the overall frequency of interpersonal violence.” She suggested swift prosecution, robust anti-harassment and anti-stalking legislation; offender rehabilitation programmes that treat with men and women who use violence in relationships; and multi-agency approaches and co-ordinated interventions to domestic and interpersonal violence, as some of the answers.

She said there was need for evidence-based programmes to assist men in understanding and managing their anger with strategies for self-regulation. “Men need to know they can access help and treat with issues such as anger, rejection, jealousy and the fear of being alone after a relationship is over—therapeutic interventions to help some men recognise that there is life beyond a relationship.” Her views were supported by lawyer and child rights activist Hazel Thompson-Ahye, who concurred that there was a “drag-foot mentality” on issues of domestic violence.
She said there was a need for a more structured and organised approach to prevention. The Domestic Violence Act needed to be revised and then actively enforced, she said via e-mail. Under the act, a protection order is the main remedy for victims of domestic violence.

But Thompson-Ahye said protection orders clearly do not work. What was needed was swift co-operation and continued interaction with victims by response units, she said. “I made a call last year for the police to be held accountable whenever they do not respond in a timely manner. “I strongly suggest that every report must be recorded and investigated, no matter how many times the woman recants her story.” Ways must also be found of continuing the prosecution of offenders even when the woman refuses to give evidence, she said. “Domestic violence is a crime and must be treated as such.” Cummings and Ahye were speaking in light of recent acts of domestic violence which had tragic endings. On January 9, a murder-suicide involving schoolteacher and Pennywise Cosmetics stores heiress Dian Paladee and her estranged husband Sanjeev Rambarran brought the issue to the forefront once more. It is believed Rambarran shot and killed his ex-wife before turning the gun on himself. That murder brought the number of domestic homicides to five between late December 2013 and January 2014.

Understanding domestic violence; beware of signs
In order to fight domestic violence, its dynamics must first be understood and victims must become aware of the warning signs, both Thompson-Ahye and Cummings said. Thompson-Ahye noted domestic violence was a copycat-type crime. “I say that because in the past I have had clients tell me that when there is a report of domestic violence in the newspapers, their husbands have waved the newspapers in their faces and told them they had better watch out, they might be next,” she said. She said the ultimate act of spouse murder is never the first act of violence and women need to take very seriously the first hint of violence even when the man appears to be contrite afterwards. “People who are experiencing domestic violence must be taught to recognise the triggers that precede the acts of violence and how to devise a safety plan for a quick getaway,” Thompson-Ahye said. “There are women who even during courtship experience violence and proceed to marry the same man. There are cases where the one act of violence is never repeated, but that is very rare and one would have to examine the perpetrator’s personal history to determine if that act was an aberration.”

Empower victims, reduce the cycle
Sharing a tragic story of a client who lost her life to domestic violence, Thompson-Ahye said the Government needed to do more to empower victims. She said the Government needed to spend more money on resources for victims, as too much is left up to NGOs, which are constantly begging and fund-raising. “Victims need shelters, training to become self-reliant, if they are unemployed, money to help them until they get on their feet and, very important, counselling for them and their children. “Domestic violence is a drain on our human and financial resources. It impacts the quality of life of victims, affects the effectiveness of the parenting, impairs the mental health of not only the victim, but also has a profound effect on the psychological health of her children who witness the violence. It also has implications for our health services, impacts employment, as days may have to be taken from work while the victim is healing or the bruises remain too visible to prying eyes,” she said. She noted that children were the most vulnerable in the midst of domestic violence and can become psychologically messed up later on and also become perpetrators or victims of domestic violence. “There is an increased risk in their being involved in abusive dating relationships and of their getting into conflict with the law. “Violence is learned behaviour and we need to teach children from early that violence is not an acceptable way of dealing with conflict,” Thompson-Ahye said.


More Recent Incidents
January 4: Shedrick Toppin, 38, was stabbed by a relative who is said to have been acting in self-defence.
December 26, 2013: Angel Persad, 21, of Siparia, was shot in the chest by her uncle, PC Lutchmansingh Pooran, who then committed suicide.
December 28, 2013:  44-year-old Steve Bain is believed to have committed suicide after trying to poison his wife.

Source: http://ht.ly/sPjtw

 

GET UP, GET OUT

GET UP, GET OUT

By Miranda La Rose Wednesday, January 15 2014

If ever a man should raise a hand against a woman or hit her, she should get out of that relationship immediately.

This is the plea made by Satnarine Paladee, brother of schoolteacher Dian Paladee, who was killed by her ex-husband Sanjeev Ramberran, who then shot himself to death, a week ago.

Satnarine, speaking yesterday at a memorial service for Dian at Daljit Moosai El Dorado South Hindu School, Tunapuna, where she taught the Standard One class, told teachers, students, parents and invitees to learn from his sister’s violent death.

The prayers (satsang) and readings were led by president of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Pundit Utam Maharaj and the nine-member SDMS Pundits Parishad (council). Present were Dian’s children Sangeeta and Sanjay, and brothers Don, Dave, Dalai and Dayn. Minister of Food Production and SMDS executive member Devant Maharaj also attended the service. While everyone has to die, Satnarine questioned why his sister, who never had a negative word for anyone, but only words of love and encouragement, had to die a violent death.

Dian would have celebrated her 49th birthday yesterday. She was the daughter of Lal and Shanti Paladee, the owners of Pennywise chain of cosmetics stores. On January 8, she was beaten with a rolling pin and shot once in the head by Ramberran, 44, who then turned the gun on himself. The shooting took place in Ramberran’s apartment at Bedassie Street, St Augustine.

The couple were married for 16 years, but divorced two years ago. Her brothers contend she was a victim of domestic abuse.

In his remarks, Satnarine also appealed to abusive men. “Every man, who may want to raise his hand to hit a woman, please erase that thought out of your head. Put it out of your head. Please walk away. Go drink a glass of water. Go say a prayer. Don’t ever, ever feel it is okay to raise your hand to any woman anywhere, at anytime.”

In a soft tone, he advised women, “if ever a man raises a hand to hit you, get out of that relationship. Don’t ever let nobody ever tell you that it is okay to be in an abusive relationship. They are the fools if they are saying that. Get up and get out. Get to the people who love you.” His sister, he said, was never abused by any of her siblings in any form.

“When we love people,” he said, “we should support them, be able to motivate them and not to let them stay and make mistakes.”

Calling for support for people in abusive relationships, he said, “Get them out of it. Let us as men never ever raise our hands to hit the person we are supposed to protect and to love for the rest of our lives.”

He urged people to remember Dian as someone who shared the gift of love not only among her family, but in the wider community including the school where she taught for 29 years, noting yesterday was also the anniversary of when she began teaching there. As a birthday gift, the Paladee family donated $100,000 to the school on behalf of Dian.

A teacher and the school choir encouraged everyone to sing and clap to a birthday song in an atmosphere that was already charged with a sense of loss and sadness. In a tribute, teacher Shivanie Soogrim described Dian as the diamond among her colleagues.

Always punctual, Dian’s teaching, Soogrim said, was not limited to the curriculum but including extra curricular activities among them managing the choir in which she played the harmonium. A Sai Baba devotee, Dian would preach to students and teachers to “start the day with love. Fill the day with love. End the day with love.” She encouraged students to love, so much so that one day, Soogrim said, Dian showed her a test paper on which one of her students wrote the word “Love” as her middle name. In brief remarks, SDMS general secretary Satnarayan Maharaj said the nation is in “tremendous trouble” and people cannot begin to understand the kind of problems being faced.” Evil is stalking the land,” he said and no one is safe.

Paladee and Ramberran’s deaths were the second murder/suicide for the year. The first was that of Amanda Persad, 22 who was shot to death on January 4, by her boyfriend Shastru Roopnarine, who committed suicide after. Last year on December 7, Jelani Joseph, 17, was burnt to death in Gasparillo by his father Christopher Joseph who killed himself after.

And on November 4, Charmaine Phillip, 50, was stabbed to death in Tobago by her brother Winston Phillip who committed suicide after.

In 2012, three murder/suicides were recorded and in 2011 there were four. In all the cases in which the women were victims, they were either beaten, strangled, stabbed or shot to death by men who were either a son, brother, husband, father or lover.

Source: http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,189203.html