Jamaicans should learn from Three Hills tragedy - Parchment Brown
Published:Friday | April 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Livern Barrett, Senior Gleaner Writer
IF THERE is a silver lining behind the dark clouds of the tragedy that unfolded in Three Hills, St Mary, last Thursday, the Dispute Resolution Foundation (DRF) hopes that is the spotlight it will shine on the way domestic violence is handled in Jamaica.
The DRF, through its chief executive officer, Donna Parchment Brown, charged that domestic violence is a "major issue" in Jamaica, but is not treated with importance by the wider society.
"Things happen and when they happen people are harmed, and if we don't intervene appropriately with the medical, social and legal services required, we are going to see escalation and tragedies like this," Parchment Brown warned.
Police Corporal Wayne Llewellyn, who was said to be having marital troubles with his estranged wife, Joan, is believed to have sneaked into the family's home and unleashed a barrage of bullets.
The shooting ended when Corporal Llewellyn putting a bullet into his head, but not before he had killed his wife's mother, father, brother and teenage daughter and critically wounded her.
Family members say Joan Llewellyn, who is paralysed from the waist down, had moved back to her parents home to escape her "abusive" and "controlling" husband.
seek outside help
However, Parchment Brown, who was speaking with The Gleaner after the media launch of the fifth Caribbean conference on dispute resolution at Mona School of Business in St Andrew on Wednesday, urged couples, including police personnel, with domestic problems to seek outside help "long before you get to a point where it is a domestic violence situation."
"We always have this anxiety in Jamaica where we want to 'tough it out', until it escalates to a point where we can't manage. We need to be knowledgeable and willing to get help. There is no shame in getting help," she emphasised.
"Whether in the political, business, community, interpersonal or the church spheres, there is just this seeming idea that it is weak to get help. That we must keep our business to ourselves in case people might think badly of us," she cautioned.
Pointing to the "escalation of issues" between the Brown and Llewellyn families, Parchment Brown suggested that it is now time to begin the healing process and offered the services of the DRF to intervene.
She said the next step for both families is to have dialogue with someone that can "take the temperature, so to speak, of the situation."
"It may be that the use of a healing circle will allow a number of things to be said by people who have been affected or have had a role to play in what has occurred. Get an insight into some of the issues," she said.
The DRF head said this would help both sides to talk and listen to each other and try to create "something that will allow them to survive as a family and as individuals going forward."