An 18-year-old student at the GuySuCo Training School at Port Mourant is speaking out after being doused with an unknown substance while asleep, leaving him with significant burns across his body in what his family and supporters are describing as a targeted attack following months of bullying.
Trimol Noble recounted his ordeal during a visit by Human Rights Activist and Leader of the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP), Simona Broomes, at his home over the weekend.
Noble said he retired to bed at around 10:30pm last Friday but was jolted awake by a burning sensation across his skin.
“I woke up back after I started feeling this burning in my face. After I started feeling this burning, I jumped up. I said wait them boys throw water on me again. So when I get up I go straight to the light, I put on the light, the floor was wet, the mattress I was on soaking wet, and my skin from head to toe, soaking wet,” he recalled.
Disoriented and in shock, Noble made his way to the Dining Hall and later to the tarmac in search of help. It was only when someone turned on the lights outside that the extent of his injuries became clear — his upper body, including his face, had been burnt.
Noble said he eventually reached one of the institution’s administrators, who was advised by an off-duty medic to apply petroleum jelly to the burns. In that condition, he was reportedly sent back to the dormitory to sleep. It was not until Saturday morning that he was taken to the dispensary.
His grandmother said the family was never contacted by the school. “She said anybody call you? I said no. She said girl, your grandson get bad burn in his sleep about 12 o’clock Friday night, and nobody ain’t call you. I said no one called me, nobody ain’t tell me anything,” she said.
Noble enrolled at the GuySuCo Training School one year ago, hoping to enter the Electrical Programme but was placed in the Sugar Boiler Training Programme after being told he was too young. He said things went smoothly at first, until he agreed to dance with a female trainee during a Diwali celebration, after which he was subjected to taunting and derogatory name-calling that steadily escalated.
By April, the situation had deteriorated to the point where Noble was referred to a psychiatrist at the New Amsterdam Hospital. Even as he sought help, the attacks continued. He described one incident in which a bucket of water was thrown over a washroom wall, soaking him from head to toe while he was inside. He said he filed a complaint but no action was taken.
The attack last Friday, in which he was burnt while asleep in his bed, is the latest and most serious in a series of incidents Noble says he has endured at the institution.
His family is now calling for a thorough investigation and for justice to be served. The matter was first raised publicly by Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed, who earlier called on the relevant authorities to conduct a thorough, transparent, and impartial investigation into the incident.
