Trinidad Express, November 3, 2003
Woman beaten, ??anointed?? at churchPolice are investigating a report that a 66-year-old woman was beaten by a group of church elders and forcibly ??anointed? with a bottle of oil after she complained of loud music coming from a church..
Dolores Alexander Elias, a retired psychologist, said she went to the Deliverance Temple Church, Point Fortin to complain about loud drumming when the attack took place.She said during the attack she was doused with oil and ??they said they were anointing me with the oil and started chanting verses from the Bible.?
Elias of Haddle Street, said she was asleep at home last Thursday when shortly before 7 p.m. the drumming began. ??I had been suffering from the virus and other illnesses over the past three weeks and I just could not stand the banging in my head,? she told the Express.
Elias said she pulled on a robe and bedroom slippers and went to the church.
??I went up to one of the church elders and asked her to kindly turn down the volume, but the woman shouted at me to get out or they would call in the police,? Elias said.
She added: ??I became enraged and walked up to the altar. I admit that I told them I am not moving until the cops came.?
That was when she was attacked and doused with oil, said Elias, who has complained to the Environmental Management Authority about the noise on several occasions..
She said when she held the woman and demanded an explanation for the oil being thrown on her two men, claiming to be ??church police? grabbed her by the arms and slammed her against a wall. ??One of them began choking me and the other began pounding me in the stomach,? she said.
Elias said church members accused her of ??disrupting their service? and in the commotion she was cuffed on the mouth.
Andrew Franklyn, who helps Elias around her home, said he rescued her. ??I pulled off the men and stopped them from dragging her out of the building,? he said.
A senior officer attached to the Point Fortin Police Station said they were investigating a report that Elias was beaten about the body by two men, who then attempted to drag her out of the church..
Elias complained of pains all over her body and was referred to the Point Fortin District Hospital for a medical examination.
An official from the EMA said representatives had visited the district on two occasions and were still investigating the noise complaints
Elias told the Express she suffers from hypertension and other illnesses and finds it difficult to listen to loud sounds.
Officials at the church did not respond to several calls from the Express.
