A Chaguanas man hanged himself yesterday after chopping his wife about the body.
Police said around 6.50 am, Lyle Herbert, 58, a WASA employee of Baldeo Avenue, Longdenville, chopped his estranged wife several times about the head and upper body.
Police said Herbert was ordered by the court to leave the premises on Friday since he and his wife had a history of domestic violence.
Gillian Herbert, 48, a high school teacher, who works in the Port-of-Spain Education Division, was asleep in her bed when her husband started chopping her about her face.
The woman started to scream and was rescued by two male relatives who are in their early 20s. Herbert struggled with one of the males and managed to free himself. He continued to attack the woman with a cutlass and a knife.
The young men managed to free her from the attack and took her to the Chaguanas District Health Facility where she was treated and sent to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Up to late yesterday, she was warded in critical condition. Herbert, meanwhile, tied a rope to the building and hanged himself.
The crime scene was visited by Homicide South, Chaguanas CID and Senior Superintendent Hodge Griffith.
Investigations were carried out by PC Phillips. Police siezed a rope, a cutlass and several other items. District Medial Officer Claudia Thomas Nathaniel visited the scene. Herbert’s body was taken to the mortuary and an autopsy is expected to be done tomorrow.—Adrian Boodan (See Page 9)