BVI NEWS ONLINE: Ovel Matthew, the man who beat his girlfriend in public, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined over $7,000 by Judge Indra Hariprashad-Charles at High Court on Friday afternoon.
For the grievous bodily harm offence the Dominican native was sentenced to five years which begins from the time of his incarceration, April 21, 2009. He was ordered to repay $7,780 within three months or spend an additional one year in jail for the criminal damage offence.
He pled guilty to the offences in February 2010.
In handing down her sentence Justice Charles informed the defendant that the offences laid before him were serious in nature.
Court records indicate that on April 21 at Duffs Bottom, Matthew attempted to murder 26-year-old Savitree Ramphall, a Guyanese woman. He allegedly grabbed the virtual complainant around her neck from the vehicle she was driving, and began choking her.
Ramphall allegedly passed out and fell to the ground, while Matthew allegedly kept punching and kicking her in her face and other parts of her body in public.
Herbert McKenzie represented the defendant while Senior Crown Counsel Tiffany Scatliffe represented the Crown.
ANEKA EDWARDS.
You all don’t know all the details. coolie women can be very demanding especially when their family opposed your relationship from the start. Still that is not an excuse to beat and nearly kill a woman—her relatives would do that themselves if they laid hands on her.
It serves him bloody right and the sentence is much too soft. And I am a man myself. What makes these SOBs think that they can just treat women like sh**. Would those that are trying to placate him like it if it was their sister, wife, girlfriend, mother etc, that he treated that way. He should be made an example off. Let him go into the prison and treat the men in there the way he trerated that poor woman. I dont care what she did, he had no right to put hiis hand on her. Men like that are still boys mentally and can only communicate with their d***. I hope there is some big 6′ 6″ mandingo in prison that would like to play with him; if you know what i mean. That should make him think a bit and respect women. Some of the ealier comments that say about prison life and so on and so forth; i dont give a damn. If you want to stay out of prison, stay away from trouble. PERIOD.
Let me tell u something….First my brother not a buggarer right so wen u talkin no wat u say saing in ur … retarded if u is one he not one.And u wishing bad 4 him but u must reap wat u say.Wen u av glass windows u must not through stone.
i suppose those who are so quick to cast him off to jail have never even been to jail before. maybe one day you yourself might be in the same boat… and will beg for some leniency yourself. Let those who have committed no sin, cast the first stone. To often do we rejoice in the downfall of each other n shout
“good for you, serve your right”. If you yourself would never like to go to jail or prison wish for others what you would wish for yourselves.
Dont get me wrong at all Disgusted Dominican Woman in the BVI, i am not for one second saying that the guy has a right to beat the girl or doing any of these things.My comment comes from me following this story from the time the first article was posted, it stated that the guy believed the girl was cheating. Everyone was like through his keys, send him to jail cut his balls and what note,totally ignoring the fact that she was maybe cheating rubbish whos know the facts .This man could have put his all in this, and this woman cheating on him. The right thing to do then is leave her alone and move on, but how many of us men out dere can actually do that.It takes a very strong man to just walk away, this mans whole life could have been built around this woman who knows, it is so hard to get a good woman, a woman that real and know her value.Women so quick to call men dogs but 90% of times the dog they know is the dog they create. I will say again this man has no right to beat this woman but this man could have been pushed to a point of no return who knows
WOMEN THESE DAYS SHOULD KNOW THEIR VALUES
TO YOUNG MAN IN DOMINICA:
He is no soldier.
The soldier in this picture, is the DOMINCAN Prison Officer who has to cart him off to the jail. Why couldn’t he choose to do something productive as the Prison Officer?
You had to have been there to see him in action. Banging the girl on the road, traffic backed up in both lanes, he hit an independent party’s vehicle when he tried to run over the girl, and that same person, was trying to get him off the girl, when she was already unconcious, not even worrying about his vehicle which Ovel had just mashed up.
And in all of this he choose to say, let me kill her and go to jail, even when the police was there thats what he kept saying.
He had no right to do this, because he could have just moved on. How do you know the woman was cheating? He tried to throw her off the balcony at work earlier in the day too, just because he saw someone else driving the vehicle, a person who is a mechanic, and was working on the vehicle that same day. Just because the mechanic was her ex boyfriend. He is an insecure prick , and I hope he gets what he wants up in the jail.
Don’t worry after the 5 years, he will be sent back to Dominica to beat your sisters, friends and mothers if thats what you want.
While we all agree JUSTICE was served. The question still remains – “Will this young man be REHABILITATED” in prison? Do we really care about the root causes of this young man’s behavior? Are we really concerned as to what will happen to this young man after he serves his time? I know this subject is a very emotional one and I am not excusing this young man’s behavior. However, it is time that the legal system in collaboration with the government take a hard look of crimes of that nature and put programs and systems in place to address that behavior in an attempt to REHABILITATE these offenders. I know many of you will say some of them will never learn, granted, nevertheless if one offender is rehabilitated it is one less repeat offender we have in our community and it would be worth it. Let us pray for the young man. He could have been our son/brother/father/godson/nephew/neighbor. Even if he is not he is DOMINICAN and when your neighbor house catches fire, the old people say, get water and wet yours.
God bless.
Soilder walk to jail with ur head up like a man, people on here that think this young man was the only person at fault just as bad as the low cheating shameful woman.
he did the crime let him pay the time
well bro ,sorry it reach that stage you must think in future before you raise your hand. I guess after you serve your sentence they will deport you to Dominica?
Great job BVI courts. This is how you sentence people for crimes of that nature. Sexual abuse, beating derve their maximum penalty, not 3 months in jail as we saw earlier in Dominica for sexual abuse. Dominica courts you need to learn from this.
JUSTICE has been served hot….Take note men!
very good hope he learn a lesson
Domestic violence is not a DOMINICA or Caribbean thing. For those of you who are gleeful at this rather unfortunate situation, I caution to think twice before you open your mouth. Some of you are threatening violence towards the young man and that in itself is not the answer it will only lend itself in compounding the matter.
All over the world and in particularly what is called “developede countries” there are offices set up to help combat Domestic Violence. In New YorKSity there is an office headed by a Commissioner linked to all five boroughs District Attorney Office. Still you would ahve thought there would be slowing or curtailing of Domestic Violence. Not at all. Domestic violence is a dirty, dirty “secret” aimed at making the abused (man or woman) feel less than and lower their self esteem.
In the Caribbean there is this long held misconception that a man has to strike a woman to “show her I love her”. LOVE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HURT. We need a lot of educating to do. We need to teach our children (especially our girls) to appreciate themselves and report the first incidence of abuse so it is not continued. Abusers can kill the abused. Even when Orders of Protection have been issued, the abuser still finds a way to contact and sometimes kill their victim. This is a vicious cycle and we need to constantly remind our men that their women should not be treated in such a manner. We hear about these abuses now because it is now spoken about on a more frequent basis. I am sure many people on this bord if you are more than 30 years old remember someone in your village/town being beaten when you were growing up and it appeared as if it was the norm.
This young man needs rehab while in jail and a thorough psychological examination – he should be encouraged to re-learn how to communicate and not flare into jealous rages. Abuse is a question of control and no human being should control another to the point where they are scared stiff.
I hope u get a beating in d jail. Hope them men choke u and knock ur a** unconscious. In the mean time try learn a trade while u in prison so u find something decent to do with ur hands instead of using it on a woman. u worthless little prick
All u have av 2 do is go in de jail an beat him up 4 urself nah …
Well deserving. I see the judge had a little pity on you by giving you only 5yrs in the calabouse. Good riddance. Maybe you will a shemale in there that will show you what beating a woman feels like.
ONLY DA THEM GIV HIM I WOULD HAD HANG HIS A,,,, .R U D-A MEN FEEL R U BAD? IT SHOULD HAD BEEN MY MOTHER R SISTER R ANTY R ANYTHIN TO ME AN HE WOULDN’T C DAY LIGHT AGAIN. OVER ALL THEM PEOPLE IN D-A JUST GIVIN THEM SELF A BAD NAME ALL OVER DE PLACE LIKE DE KILLIN IN ANU, ALL ABOUT THEM JUST DOIN S,,,, U ALL MUST STOP THEN U ALL WILL B KEEP BEEN LOOK DOWN ON SO DO WHAT IS RIGHT AN STOP (HELPIN) MAK DE CARIBBEAN LOOK BAD
Great job BVI you have set the standards on abuse of women, thank you , this man will learn a lesson and so will many other men out there who intends to put thier hands on women, learn to walk away and stop abusing women.
my boy make sure the woman pay that fine for you. not 4getting ur fresh fruit and vegitable weekly from her. when u come out make sure u maried that woman and treat her like ur royal princess. ok dude
The authorities should loose the key on mister especially as he is a foreigner beating up on their homegirl, this man is a hopeless case, he went out there to get a better life and thats the mess he got himself into. What hurts more is that more than half the time these abusive men have nothing of substance to offer to women, just a half dead “prick” that cannot even complete the job, and since they feel so inadequate they use their hands. She should have been given the opportunity to beat him in public right after he was sentence. I pray she is smart enough not to visit this man, especially as he is in a foreign land so let him rot in jail by himself.
Girl u had no brothers to work Mister before he was arrested?
judges in dominica please learn!! thats how u sentence a man for beating a woman…rape ..etc.
Justice!
hmmmm…yes yes…finally a man get a nice jail time for putting his hand on a woman…. i really dislike an abusive man….as a young guy myself…i can never see myself being abusive to my wife or girlfriend…
i hope he learns from his lesson, abuse is not the answer no matter what the situation may be.
Good for you, that is not enough. Why our Domincan men like to raise their hands on women or rather women they claim they love? Hope this is an example. Our system here should do the same when we have similar situations.