Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 08, 2015 News
Police in the interior are on the hunt for a gold miner who stabbed his ‘Bossman’ to death after the miner was accused of stealing gold from the camp.
Thirty-five-year-old Noel Clementson, called ‘Professor Clem’, a dredge owner from Bartica, bled to death in his camp at Arimu Backdam, Cuyuni, on Tuesday night after he was stabbed several times by the suspect.
Judy Gittens, the mother of some of Clementson’s children, who was in the camp at the time, survived the attack although she received a few cuts to her hand while trying to wrestle the knife from the killer.
Police have detained a female who is closely associated with the suspect and they hope to gather enough information from her in their efforts to apprehend him.
Speaking to this newspaper via telephone, Gittens said that Clementson had completed work for the day and they were retiring to bed when he heard footsteps approaching his work ground, which is located close to the camp.
She said that Clementson was suspicious, since the gold he had harnessed earlier in the day appeared short. He was therefore on the lookout for any suspicious move that could confirm his belief that one of his workers was stealing.
When he investigated the footsteps, he saw the employee approaching the pipe that connected the dredge to the sluice box that traps the gold.
“The man put steel wool in the pipe to block the gold and like he was going to remove it when Noel confront he,” Gittens explained.
A heated argument ensued between the two men and Clementson walked away to avoid any violence.
But he sensed that the employee was determined to harm him so he advised Gittens to put on her clothes and that they should head to another camp nearby for safety.
But while Gittens was getting dressed, the employee crept up on Clementson and dealt him two lashes to his head with a piece of wood.
When Clementson fell, the employee jumped on him and stabbed him several times.
“I hear the lash and I run out. I did not see the knife; I thought he was cuffing noel. I see Noel on the ground trying to get up and fight. Is only when the moonlight come out, I see the glitter (of the knife) and I holler,” Gittens said.
She told this newspaper that she ran out to her husband’s attacker and tried to stop him, but the man pushed her aside.
“Like he go to kill me because he put de knife to me, but I start kicking up and tumbling up on the ground.”
By now her screams had alerted persons in a nearby camp and when they came to her assistance, the suspect bolted from the scene.
Gittens said that she ran to her fallen husband and hugged him, trying desperately to stem his bleeding, while the persons from the other camp tried to get their ATV started to transport the badly wounded man to get medical attention.
“Like something was wrong with the bike and by the time they fix it and go to get a Cruiser, Noel bled to death about three hours later in the camp,” Gittens said.
Donna Jones, who is popularly known as Lady D, of local calypso fame and mother of two of Clementson’s children, told this newspaper that the father of eight was also a Calypsonian.
“He was the original ‘Professor Clem’,” she said, adding that he should not be mixed up with the reigning calypso monarch, Lester Charles, who goes by the name ‘De Professor’.
According to Jones, both she and Clementson had made plans to enter this year’s Mashramani Calypso competition but they missed the deadline for the audition.
“We already had our songs and I was waiting for him to come out from the bush. But after we miss the calypso audition, he said he was entering the Soca Monarch competition,” Jones stated.
She said that any plan she had for Mashramani has now been shelved since she can no longer muster the courage to go on stage to perform.
Clementson is the fifth person to be murdered so far this year which is only eight days old.
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