Victim tells how his once-active lifestyle was changed forever by ‘greed’

Canadian visitor Kenneth Elliot was a very active man until the night he was shot and left paralyzed. Today, he told a local High Court “I have no life.”

“I have no ability to do anything, I am stuck in a wheelchair,” he said as he painted a candid picture of what he has been going through since February 22, 2020 when two masked men stormed the house where he and his family were vacationing armed with a cutlass and gun. He was shot and is now left with no ability to function from the “upper portion” of his body downwards.

As he spoke to the No. 4 Supreme Court via Zoom today, the young men who admitted to the crime, attended the sitting from Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds during the virtual sitting.

“Can they imagine peeing through a hose six times a day, having to get up in the midst of the night to have the continuity and the ability, so that you are not peeing the bed?

Elliot aimed those questions hypothetically at Travis Orin Campbell, of no fixed place of abode and his accomplice Alexander Patrick Alleyne, of Ealing Grove Gardens, Christ Church.

The two recently pleaded guilty to trespassing in the Christ Church residence where Robert Elliott was staying with intent to steal while armed with a cutlass and firearm.

They also took responsibility for using a firearm when they did not have the required licence as well as unlawfully and maliciously wounding Kenneth Elliott with intent to cause him serious bodily harm or to maim, disfigure or to disable him.

“I don’t have any control of my body. I have to stay in a tilted position to be able to sit up otherwise I will fall forward. I have had to have remediation with my legs,” he said, adding that he suffered with bowel movement implications, foot sores as well as other issues and had multiple nurses to assist him.

“I have had to go to the doctor for blood clots in my legs now because of inactivity in my legs and these blood clots have the potential of killing me with either a stroke or a heart attack. So that all of these things are implications from the shooting,” he disclosed to Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith Bovell, prosecutor Crown Counsel Kevin Forde, defence counsel Ryan Moseley and the convicted criminals.

He further stated that his relationship with his partner Linda Brooks had been severely impacted be it intimately or by just being “the man of the house” helping with chores.

His social life has also been impacted as he can no longer ride his motorcycles, drive a car, truck or go anywhere or do anything like visiting his family.

“My family doesn’t have handicap accessible houses. So, I can’t even go and see my grandkids. I can’t see my children. All of these abilities are gone from this severing of my spinal cord where I don’t have any use of my lower body.

“All of this is thanks to someone being greedy, about trying to get a few dollars from me that I had worked very hard for over the course of the years, to be able to come to your country and have a pleasant holiday,” Elliott said.

Giving a comparison of his life before and after the incident, Elliott stated that on a scale of one to ten his life is drastically different from what it used to be.

“I was at a nine or ten, right at the top of the scale honestly Your Honour, I was very active,” he said as he compared it to the present day. “I don’t know if I would go as high as a one or two, honestly I am right at the bottom – I have no life. I have no  ability to do anything, I am stuck in a wheelchair.

“I only have abilities from my upper portions of my body so that it changes the whole perspective of how you live life. Life is not anywhere near what it would be or should be.”

Regarding Alleyne and Campbell who the facts showed had targeted the family in order to get “quick money” and in the act, had “accidentally shot the tourist”, Elliot stated, “My understanding of these lads is not very favourable.”

“I believe that they defamed the country. I believed they defamed the whole process of visitors coming to spend an enjoyable time there. This kind of communication of what they have done to me spreads rapidly around the world. I feel they have done a great disservice to your country never mind the damage they have done to me.

“So at some point in time these lads . . .  I really feel they should be persecuted too and possibly have to go through some of the things that I have gone through or going through.”

The case against the men, who were both 19 years old at the time of the crime, will continue virtually on May 14.
(fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb)