Dear Editor,

I met the mother of Colin Henry's four children around 1993. She is a friend of my very best friend, and from 1993 to 1995 when I left Guyana I would visit her with our mutual friend.

At the time Alexis and Colin lived at the corner of Light Street and North Road, and I was made aware of the horrific abuse she suffered when on many occasions she would run barefooted from Light Street to South Ruimveldt where our mutual friend lived to be rescued. At that time she had two boys, she would go to the police station countless times and nothing would be done. But there is one incident that she spoke of, it is so horrific that at the time I wish she had not spoken about it, because I'll never be able to forget it. We did nothing to help her, could we have done something to stop this abuse since we were aware of it?

Eleven years have gone by and I was devastated to read of it in the media, because I'm aware of how brutal it was. We must ask ourselves how many times we pretend not to hear a child's cry, a woman's screams. What is the reason that we don't try in our own way to help change the situation. I'm guilty of that, I asked my friend to go to the prosecutor and tell them how many times she was made aware of the most gruesome details. She has not answered me.

But I still think Alexis running and leaving her children behind was wrong. As a mother I think that I might even take the law into my own hands to protect my sons. Because human monsters are not nightmares that we wake up from, they are the reason we can't sleep in the first place.

Yours faithfully,

Shellon Clouden