Ditched lover torches house

TIMES INT'L

A ditched lover of Queenstown on the Essequibo Coast set his bedroom house on fire last Friday night around 18:30h, leaving four homeless.
Matthew Johnson, 31, who is currently in police custody, was motivated to set the house on fire after he had a heated argument with his wife, who subsequently walked out on him.
The fire started after he threw a lamp on the bed, which broke and set the mattress on fire. The fire quickly spread throughout the house and the raging flames also caused extensive damage to nearby houses.

Nelly Sookra and her daughter
Nelly Sookra and her daughter

According to Nelly Sookra, her reputed husband came home the morning of said day after he was away for some time, and tried to get close to her.  She related that he admitted his love for her and afterwards questioned her’s for him. The tearful woman said after she denied being in love with him, he became angry and started to verbally and physically abuse her.
Sookra said she took her daughter into the house and locked the doors, but her reputed husband became aggravated, kicked down the door and started destroying everything in the house.  This led to her and her daughter having to seek refuge at a neighbour and about 10 minutes later, she was alarmed by another neighbour of her house going up in flames.
Sookra said neighbours ran with their buckets and tried desperately to put the flames out, but by then it was spreading to other houses nearby while completely consuming her hard-earned possessions.
Firemen tried to contain the blaze, and by the time they managed to have it under control, it had already done extensive damage. Sookra is currently staying with one of her sisters.
The woman was residing at a home donated by Food for the Poor and supports her daughter singlehandedly, working as a domestic maid in the community.
Another of Sookra’s sisters, Elorna McLennan, who was on site assisting to put out the blaze, said her sister is constantly being abused by her reputed husband but refused to terminate the relationship with him, as he threatened to harm her if she did.  The woman alleged too that several reports were made to the police, but none were taken seriously, a situation that was highly criticized by the villagers.

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