Teen set on fire by 27-year-old boyfriend

Mar 15, 2020 News

Fifteen-year-old Cristal DeAbreu of Lot 70 Timehri Circuit Area, East Bank Demerara (EBD) is battling for her life at the Burn Care Unit (BCU) attached to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). She was reportedly set on fire by her 27-year-old boyfriend.
The incident occurred last Sunday around 22:30hrs.
The suspect who is at present in police custody has been identified as Shawn Smith, also of Timehri Circuit Area, EBD.
Due to the incident, Miss DeAbreu suffered third degree burns to over 70 percent of her body.
Kaieteur News understands that the victim dropped out of school to start a relationship with the suspect without the consent of her parents.
According to the victim’s mother, Joy DeAbreu, her daughter’s relationship with the suspect started early January 2020 and it was abusive from the start.
“Since the relationship started, he used to beat her but she was not telling me anything. Is till when I went into her [daughter] bedroom and saw a set of marks on her skin. But when I ask her who did it to her and she did not answer me.”
The distraught mother further stated that on the night of the incident, her daughter was at home watching television with her other siblings when she received a call from the suspect, who then told her to come to his workplace to collect something from him.
“The call came through like 19:30hrs. When she was walking out the door, I ask her where she was going and she told me that she going and see him [suspect].”
According to Ms. DeAbreu, around 22:45hrs the said night, her daughter returned home covered in flour with the suspect leading her, because she was unable to see on her own.
The suspect then told the teen’s family that she tried to commit suicide by burning herself.
Upon close inspection, it was found that the victim’s flesh was peeling from her skin and her hair dropping off.
After realising what had happened, the victim’s mother along with the suspect quickly placed the teen in a taxi and transported her to the city hospital where she remains hospitalised.
According to sources, it was only after she was given pain medicine that she told her mother that it was her boyfriend who set her on fire minutes after she arrived at his work place.
“She [daughter] told me that after she went to his work place, he accused or of cheating on him. He then started to beat her until she became semi-conscious.”
According to Ms. DeAbreu, the suspect threw kerosene on her daughter and then set her on fire, using matches. After setting her on fire, the suspect then threw several packs of flour on the teen with the aim of hiding the burns.
A police source stated that initial investigations have revealed that the suspect was premeditated to burn the victim.
The police source also stated that the suspect went to work with the flour, match and kerosene in his backpack.

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