by Kory Leslie (Freelance Writer)
BELIZE CITY, Sat. Dec. 24, 2022
This week, a transnational love affair ended, not only in heartache, but in an outburst of violence by a British soldier who has been charged for assaulting and kidnapping his Belizean fiancé. The incident reportedly occurred at about 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, Christmas Eve. Stratford, who is serving in the British Army Training and Support Unit of Belize (BATSUB), reportedly found text messages on the phone of his fiancée, 28-year-old Gabriela Vanutterbeeck, and after he questioned her about it and she admitted that she had cheated on him, he became enraged—reportedly throwing many of her belongings through the window of their home, which is located beside the river. Vanutterbeeck has claimed that he also attempted to throw her dog out the window and that he kicked her and dragged her by the hair. She said that he then forced her into her vehicle, a Toyota RAV 4, with the purported intention of taking her to Belmopan, but that he stopped and put her out the vehicle near the Burdon Canal Bridge. She then hitchhiked and went to the police station. Her injuries were classified as harm, and police detained Stratford shortly after.
When he appeared in the Magistrate Court on Tuesday before Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser, he was charged with harm, damage to property, theft and kidnapping, and Fraser informed him that, because of the serious nature of the kidnapping charge, she could not offer him bail, and he would be remanded to the Belize Central Prison. It is at that point, when Stratford learned that he would be taken to the Belize Central Prison, that he began to weep. If he had been offered bail, it would have been possible for him to spend his time on remand at the BATSUB facility at Price Barracks in Ladyville, and it is possible that Stratford had been hoping that would be the case. Fraser told him that he would have to return to court on February 17, 2023.
Immediately after the hearing, however, Stratford’s attorney, Orson “OJ” Elrington, launched an emergency bail application process—one not previously carried out in Belize, to secure bail so that his Stratford could be transferred to the BATSUB facility. The application was submitted on the grounds that, according to international standards, law enforcement officers are not to be placed in the general population of any prison.
By the following afternoon, on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Sandcroft had granted bail, and he was released into the custody of military personnel from BATSUB, where he will remain until next February. He is not to leave Price Barracks, and must report daily to military police. Justice Sandcroft also stipulated that he is to receive six months of anger management counseling.
Elrington told reporters after the hearing, “The learned justice was particularly perturbed about the fact that military and law enforcement officers at all costs, so long as they have not been convicted, should have alternative places for them to reside until their bail can be heard at least.”
Stratford must also refrain from contacting his ex-fiancé.