Wife says she wants to go back to England

Following an incident that led to her husband being chopped on the shoulder, returning national Anita Charles says she wants to go back where she came from.{{more}}

After spending over forty years in England, nine years ago, Anita and her husband Stanford Charles decided to return to their homeland St. Vincent and the Grenadines for what they thought would be a peaceful way to spend their latter years.

However, that thought changed on Monday, January 16, when 69-year-old Stanford was chopped on his shoulder.

Anita, a resident of Queensbury, Vermont, alleges that her husband was chopped by another resident of Vermont, following a confrontation.

Charles says her family has twelve acres of land on which they rear sheep and goat. However, during the last week, she claims they lost ten of the animals.

According to Charles, some of the animals were stolen, while others were attacked by dogs.

The displeased woman explained that on the evening of the incident, they heard their dogs barking and looked out. A black dog was seen running around.

That is when her husband Stanford went to investigate with his cutlass, and the dog ran off.

“He told me, ‘I’m going up the hill to see if I can trace where this dog came from’.

Anita said her husband walked up the hill where he met a young man. She said he asked the man, ‘Can I have a look at your dogs to see if I can recognize the one that has been damaging my animals, because I saw one at my house this morning’.

Anita said her husband said the man refused.

The woman said her husband related this information to her while he was in the hospital.

“…Stanford said he (the young man) had a long piece of stick so he couldn’t get close to him. He took the stick and hit him with the stick and continued hitting him (Stanford) with the stick.”

The depressed lady explained that this is when the alleged chopper knocked the cutlass from her husband’s hand, picked up it up and chopped him on his right shoulder.

“The chop went straight through,” Anita said.

Anita said her husband called her on her mobile phone after the incident and she proceeded in the direction where her wounded husband was.

“He called me and told me to call Trevor, my brother, so that’s when I know he needed help. As I walked up, I can see him walking towards me and he fell before I got to him. When I got closer to him, he wasn’t unconscious…”

A friend of the family who is also an ambulance driver was then summoned to assist Anita with taking her husband to the hospital.

The police were also called and they assisted with transporting the wounded man to the Milton Cato Memorial hospital.

The mother of two daughters who currently reside in England said her husband spent over five hours undergoing surgery.

“While I was at the hospital, when he came out of surgery, he squeezed my hand with his hand where he was chopped.”

Describing how she felt about the situation, Anita said she cannot understand why a young man would take a cutlass and injure a man who is old enough to be his father.

“I am horrified that our people can stoop so low to behave like that. I wonder what hope there is for us in this country.

“I think when he comes out of there (hospital) that if he would agree with me that we get out of St. Vincent to go back to where we came from.

“I am really hurt and upset by the whole issue,” she added.

Up to press time, the alleged chopper had not been arrested, but police informed SEARCHLIGHT that investigations are ongoing.

Anita, however, says she is seeking justice for what was done to her husband.

This is the second time that Stanford has been hospitalized in less than a year for a serious injury. In March 2011, he sustained an injury to his right leg while climbing the iron fence just left of the main entrance to the Parliament building in Kingstown, during protest action organized by the New Democratic Party.