Ten months after years of abuse culminated in a vicious, violent attack on her life, mother of three, Rachel Chadee, is calling on those in authority to do more to help battered women in T&T.
At her La Romaine home yesterday, Chadee, 34,told the T&T Guardian that although the man who attacked and maimed is behind bars, she cannot live in peace as he has been granted bail.
On February 22, Chadee made headlines after a man doused her in acid inside her mother’s house and left her for dead.
She spent six weeks at the San Fernando General Hospital receiving treatment and another six weeks in a police safe house before investigators finally captured the man who attacked her.
“I was tortured by this man in my home for almost a year. He once lit a fire on the stairs and trapped us inside the house…if it wasn’t for my neighbors we could have burned alive in this house,” she said.
“All of that was going on and no agency or anything ever reached out to me…I felt alone and I began to feel as though I was a burden to the police, having to call them every other day because he was attacking us.”
She said as a mother of three young girls, her heart broke on learning the news of Shannon Banfield’s disappearance and death and she wants more attention to be placed on women who are struggling to get out of abusive relationships.
“There was a point when I felt like it was me who wrong. And all through that, I was facing this monster on my own with only my mother and children for support. The government and relevant agencies need to be more proactive. They need to liaise with the police and find out who are the women who consistently have to ask for protection.”
And as Chadee tries to piece together a ‘normal’ life for her daughters, rumors that her attacker may soon be free haunt her every day.
“He is in jail, but they granted him $100,000 bail and we have heard that his relatives are coming from abroad to bail him out. The police have already told me anytime he comes out, I will have to go back to the safe house until the case is finished.”