The views expressed herein are solely those of the author.
By Mr. Adrian Odle.
Two people are dead after a suspected murder-suicide in Diamond, where a house was set on fire with both victims inside. Early reporting says police were called to an incident days before the fire; the man allegedly told the woman, in the presence of officers, that he would kill her and then drink Gramoxone. Other outlets report that a son saw his father trying to set the house on fire before the blaze. This is a painful story for the families and community, and it is also a pattern we have seen before. The details will be confirmed by post-mortem.
Let’s have a look at an important law that does not get enough attention. The Domestic Violence Act, 2015, defines domestic violence broadly as any controlling or abusive behaviour that harms a person’s or child’s health, safety, or well-being, including (but not limited to) physical, sexual, emotional/psychological, verbal, and economic abuse, intimidation, harassment, stalking, property damage, and unauthorised entry into the applicant’s residence.
Did you also know that under the Domestic Violence Act, 2015, officers are required to record complaints, inform victims of their rights, and submit reports to a Domestic Violence Register kept by the Commissioner? The Domestic Violence Act, 2015, section 19 (2)–(3) requires police to complete a “domestic violence report” for every domestic violence complaint, and those reports “form a Domestic Violence Register to be maintained by the Commissioner of Police.” The Act also shows how the report should be formatted in Form 8 (Schedule 2), which includes things such as the parties’ names/relationship, history of domestic violence, date/time of the complaint, and type of abuse/weapon, among other things. The Act also allows for emergency entry and arrest when serious harm is feared, and courts can order seizure of firearms and other dangerous weapons.
Some research by PubMed Central (PMC), a reliable source for biomedical literature, tells us that there are certain behavioural patterns in domestic violence that may predict fatal outcomes. Some of those signs are non-fatal strangulation, threats to kill, separation, stalking, and coercive control. The research links non-fatal strangulation to a higher risk of being killed by an intimate partner, which is why every domestic violence report in St Vincent and the Grenadines should include a direct question about strangulation and other abusive actions to track patterns in victims and their abusers.
Some suggestions are simple and not expensive to implement in the RSVGPF. We can start with a Domestic Violence High-Risk Team (DVHRT), where police, Family Services, Gender Affairs, health/mental health, courts and maybe lawyers can meet frequently to share information on the most serious cases and assign time-bound actions. The RSVGPF can also build on the national GBV coordination launched in December 2024.
What can change the RSVGPF immediately? First, introduce a danger-assessment tool or similar form of assessment on every domestic violence call to the RSVGPF. Second, move quickly on protection order breaches. Third, strangulation screening and an immediate police response (along with the assistance of medical response) to high-risk suicide or poisoning threats, “wait and see” is not a strategy.
We currently have the Gender Affairs Division and the Family Services Division that provide advice, court support and casework. Marion House also offers community counselling. The Mental Health Centre provides 24-hour crisis care and can be contacted directly. Publishing these institutions more widely at police stations and in clinics and using them in the field may save lives.
If you or someone you know is in danger: call police 999/911/457-1211 and consider contacting the Gender Affairs Division for domestic violence support; for mental health emergencies, the Mental Health Centre (Villa) is available at (784) 458-4240.
Keep another family from getting that call. We can honour the dead by acting on the warnings they, and others, tried to give.
END
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