Jealousy could drive some men to beat their women to death. - Andrew Smith/Photography Editor
End violence against women. This is the theme for this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. However, as the Bureau of Women's Affairs and other women's organisations in the island coordinate activities to empower women, the need for such a day has become increasingly apparent.
Since November 17, there have been a number of cases of violence against women, resulting either in death or injury.
On November 17, Michael Thorpe, a 47-year-old resident of Kew Road, Kingston 10, went into a jealous rage accusing his girlfriend of having an affair. He hit her repeatedly over the head with a sledgehammer, beat her daughter who tried to intervene and then locked himself in a room and set the house on fire.
On that same day, a 40-year-old farmer of Derry district in St. Mary used a machete and stabbed to death his girlfriend, 46-year-old Claudette Nelson.
And in another incident, a 42-year-old St. James accountant was charged with the murder of his wife, whose body parts were recovered from a pit latrine and an incinerator on the Lucea Primary School compound in Hanover.
A policeman is now in critical condition in hospital after shooting his girlfriend to death and attempting to kill himself on the grounds of the Danny Williams School for the Deaf, St. Andrew, on November 21.
On November 13, 35-year-old Hector Lewis accused his girlfriend of being unfaithful. Later that night, he poured acid on her pubic area disfiguring her genitals.
Between 1995 and 1999, reports of spousal abuse have almost quadrupled. Woman Inc., a non-governmental organisation that counsels women who are victims of domestic abuse and operates a shelter for battered women, said annual reports have increased from 333 to over 1,150.
What would drive you to kill your partner? What do you think would drive a man to kill his partner?
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