Senior Prison Officer, stepson injured in cutlass attack

Efforts to stop a domestic dispute between his stepson Shaurn Baker and nephew resulted in Grafton Cordice becoming a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.{{more}}

Visibly in pain, Cordice, a senior prison officer at Her Majesty’s Prisons, is thankful to be alive after surviving a cutlass attack. He is, however, quite unhappy about the manner in which the police responded to his call for help. “If the police had only responded differently, I would not have been in this position today,” he lamented.

Cordice, of Fairbaine Pasture, was chopped in his head, face, right arm, chest and abdomen during the horrific ordeal.

The drama unfolded on Tuesday, September 22, when Cordice went to tie his goats in a nearby pasture. He said his nephew Harold Cordice was sitting on the step of his (Cordice’s) house with a cutlass in his hand. “At that time, I saw Shaurn (his step-son) going to the house and I heard my nephew tell him to get out of his grandfather’s house and I told Harold to behave himself,” he recounted.

He said that Harold then went to the back of his house and began firing chops at the backdoor, while Shaurn was present. “I see he even fire chops at Shaurn and I tell him behave, so I leave my goats and try to hold onto Harold,” Cordice recalled. A tussle then ensued between both men, which resulted in them falling to the ground and rolling over into the neighbour’s land. During the tussle, Grafton sustained chops about his body.

Cordice told SEARCHLIGHT that his nephew has always been in conflict with relatives over property. “It’s not now he behaving so…he just have a serious problem, because nearly every morning he would throw words and say it is time for us to get out his grandfather’s house.” He told SEARCHLIGHT that his family has made numerous reports to the Calliaqua Police about Harold, but nothing was ever done.

Last November, Cordice said that Harold chased down his (Grafton’s) common-law wife with a cutlass because of an issue with the house. Cordice stated that his nephew went on top of the house and chopped the galvanize, costing him over $7,000 in repairs.

Relating his side of the story, Shaurn says he still can’t fathom why a man whom he never had an altercation with would attack him. “I still kinda shock because he telling me to get out of his house and threatening me, but I never pay he any mind,” Baker said. The 23-year-old, who at the time of the interview was walking with a limp as a result of the attack, said that he was getting ready to go to work when he was chopped. “I never dream of this happening to me because I don’t get into trouble with anybody at all,” Baker stated.

Searchlight also understands that Harold Cordice is also patient at the Male Surgical Ward where he is nursing wounds under police guard.