PORT ANTONIO, Portland — Nadine Anderson and her two daughters are terrified. Word came last Tuesday that Davian Bryan, the main suspect in last October’s abduction of two girls in St Thomas and at least one attack this year, was back in their Durham Gap community and had reportedly commented on how much her daughters had grown.

“From dat, mi a fret. People see him and come tell mi seh him in a di area so mi no fi sen mi pickney dem a road alone because him seh mi pickney dem get big,” she said. “Is somebody I know but is six years mi and him nuh deal.”

She also dismissed rumours that her mother has been helping Bryan.

“Mi have a cousin who hear people saying my mother have him. Mi mother live a Bath Spring, not Durham, and nuh know nothing about him,” said Anderson.

She was speaking with the Jamaica Observer last Thursday, a day after what is suspected to be Bryan’s latest attack on a woman in Durham Gap. The incident had robbed Anderson’s daughters of their appetite for food, replacing it with throat-clogging fear.

“He attacked her and throw her in the bush. Her head mash up,” a man told the Observer of the alleged attack which is said to have occurred about 10:30 am.

The woman, who was rescued after she made an alarm, was taken to the Port Antonio Hospital for treatment. She was later transferred to another hospital where she was admitted.

Residents said the woman, who knows Bryan, was able to describe him as her attacker. The police have confirmed that he is a suspect in that incident.

Residents said Bryan had lived in Durham Gap then moved to Norwich in the parish before heading to St Thomas. They said he is back in Durham Gap but they are afraid to report him to the police as he has threatened to harm those who do. Residents have welcomed the police patrols taking place in the area since last Wednesday’s attack but think more needs to be done.

“These things don’t happen up here and we want him out. Look what him do the lady,” said one resident.

Many stay inside their homes, fearfully peering through windows, while machete-wielding men from the community walk around in groups.

“I am living in fear. I can’t go to the gully down there,” said Anderson as she pointed to the area below the road. “Si mi bag with mi plantain sucker; mi plant ground down the gully and when mi hear that him deh bout and is down there him move mi nuh go down there. I buy them to plant as I have the children going to high school and I have to help and can’t just depend on the man alone,” she said.

Residents showed the Observer a hut they believe is being used by Bryan. Inside was a slab of sponge, apparently for sleeping, a lighter, a ‘Dutch pot’ containing a meal of rice and mackerel, a fireside and a drum of water. Coffee, bananas, cocoa, and pineapple were among the crops planted nearby.

On Monday, the Portland police once again urged Bryan to turn himself in.

“Davian Bryan is asked to surrender to the police as there is a warrant out for his arrest,” Superintendent in charge of Portland Kenneth Chin said.

Bryan is wanted for illegal possession of firearm and rape. He is out on bail but failed to appear before the Portland Circuit Court on February 17 and the judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Administrators of the parish’s College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) suspect him of being involved in last Thursday’s attack on a female student but this has not been confirmed by the police.

On Monday, Superintendent Chin repeated an appeal to residents not to help the fugitive, whom he said is often in Norwich and Durham Gap in Portland as well as Bath in St Thomas.

— Everard Owen