‘Squingy’ takes the witness stand in chopping attack case

Nineteen-year-old Calder Ridge resident Afeisha ‘Squingy’ Toby could not hold back the tears on the witness stand yesterday, as she gave a detailed account of a vicious chopping attack at the hands of a man who came into her house demanding sex.{{more}}

Her alleged attacker, Annel Young of Calder Ridge, is facing two charges of attempted murder and aggravated burglary.

Toby was allegedly attacked by Young in the wee hours of Sunday, May 2, 2010, at her then home in Victoria Village. She sustained severe chop wounds to her head, which punctured the lining of her brain, as well as chops to the front and back of her neck. Chops were also inflicted on her back, shoulder and both hands. One of her fingers was also severed.

In her testimony at the High Court, she testified that she knows Young very well because he used to frequent their home.

“He used to come chill, sit down and cook with all of us…,” she said.

The past student of the St Clair Dacon Secondary School said Young was at the neighbour’s home, which is close by, when he told her that her mother had borrowed some money from him and he hadn’t yet been repaid.

“I tell him is my mother borrow the money and he need to go tell she. He then say to me that if he don’t get his money, he will do something,” Toby stated.

Later that day, the teen said that she and some friends went to a barbecue, which was being held close to where she lives. After returning from the event later that night, Toby said her friends waited outside to make sure she was safely in the house.

“When I got in the house, I shouted and tell them I reach safe; I check all over the house. I checked the door, I checked under the bed and I check the washroom before going on my bed…,” Toby testified.

Toby said she went on her bed and took off her shirt and stayed in her jeans and bra. “I said my prayers and then went to my bed. After a while, somebody was at my bedside. They was dolling (rubbing) down my leg, then the body was waking me up, so I say ma, ma, you have to wake me up when you come?…” she said.

However, it was not her mother.

According to Toby, the person said “Is me, Bun-Up”.

“I turn to him and say ‘way yo doing here?’ And he say ‘He come fo piece ah wife’ and I turn to him and ask if he put any wife ya…,” Toby recounted.

She said she began crying out for help when Young went into the kitchen and returned with a cutlass.

“He come back with a cutlass in his hand and began to fire chop and I began to defend myself by raising my hand to block the chops.”

Toby stated that during the struggle, Young was attempting to pull off her clothes.

“I told him I was not taking any chop and he leave after…”

The heavily scarred girl at one point came down from the witness dock, walked in front of her alleged attacker and showed the jury her severed fingers and the scars which resulted from the attack.

Toby said she made it out of the house and fell on the pavement.

“I heard my mother calling out ‘Squingy, Squingy’ and I say ‘Ma, look me behind here’.”

Toby was then rushed to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, then airlifted to Trinidad for medical help a few hours later.

During cross-examination, Young’s counsel, Grant Connell, suggested to Toby that the room was dark and that was why she did not know if it was her mother or the accused.

The girl said there was enough light in the house and a light shining from outside for her to see her attacker.

Connell further put it to Toby that his client was not the man who attacked her that night.

Toby replied, “I recognized his voice and the burns on his skin..”

The day’s proceedings were cut short when electricity went in and around Kingstown, shortly before noon.

Justice Wesley James presides over the matter, while the crown’s case is being presented by crown counsel Carl Williams.

The case continues at the High Court today.(KW)