Woman cries for help after 25 years of abuse

A mother is desperately crying out for help after she suffered her worst physical abuse at the hands of her reputed husband.

After enduring what she said was twenty-five years of sexual, mental, and physical abuse, Lavern Newton is now turning to the public for help from the hands of her reputed husband – David Sardine known as ‘Flash Garden.’

The last abuse she sustained was when the man allegedly doused her with a corrosive substance which has rendered her almost immobile and unable to work. It is suspected that he burnt her with acid, which he reportedly threw from behind.

“For ten years I keep running and because the police not doing nothing and he coming back to me, even cursing me—nasty words, because of shame I keep running back to him. For 15 years I live straight with him, I make three children, I decide to continue to live with him because police not doing anything, I not getting help from nowhere, I don’t have family—brother, sister or anybody to help me, so I just live along with it,” the woman told News Room at her 566 ‘D’ Field Sophia home.

She said she has been enduring most of the abuse because of alleged police inaction. According to Lavern, earlier this year she reached boiling point, as the man allegedly raped her in front of her 16-year-old child and attempted to do same in front of her 27-year-old.

Newton said, “I could not take it anymore, I say that was it…and I take my own action, I burn him with hot water.” The man left after being burnt and returned three days after to be taken to the hospital, which she did.

When it comes to the actions of the police in dealing with her concerns, the woman said that the law seems to take the side of the abuser rather than the victim. She recounted one visit to the police station where “I telling the police ‘this is the man who nearly burn down the house with the children them inside,’ and the police say ‘shut yuh mouth and go outside, yuh had your turn already’ and then other officers joined the ones taking the report.”

It was then that she said the suspect began describing to the police officers how he sexually assaulted her and started “a comedy show” by joking about the abuse.

Lavern told the News Room that the man, who is now in hiding, is not someone who is willing to provide for the family and she is now prepared to walk away and leave him and fend for her children on her own.

She said that when she made a request for necessities to take care of them, the man will make requests or demands—some of which she has been giving into for a number of years.

The police today confirmed that they have again engaged the woman and that repeated efforts to arrest her abuser have been futile.