WHITE HALL, Westmoreland — Relatives of a 13-year-old Westmoreland girl who received approximately seven chop wounds to her head and upper limbs are worried she will never fully recover. They are particularly concerned about her hands. Up to late Tuesday the teenager was hospitalised in critical condition, but she was responsive.

“She is a very talented young individual. She has a bright future in front of her and we did not know that this would have reached her in life at this time at such a young age,” her brother Brandon Hibberts told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to the family home in Coolie Town, White Hall, on the outskirts of Negril.

The teenager had been expected to begin eighth grade in September.

“The girl is in a terrible situation right now and the whole family is actually depressed and facing a rough situation right now because we never expect that,” added Hibberts.

The girl’s alleged attacker is said to be from another section of the community called Marl Hole. Residents there were tight-lipped when the Observer visited, claiming he was not originally from the area and they knew little about him.

Efforts to get an update from the police proved futile, but the wounded girl’s brother gave an account of what he was told took place at Marl Hole.

“I don’t know if they were in any altercation or anything like that or if they were together or whatever, but based on what I heard, they came in on the bike and some argument started and then all of that happened,” he told the Observer.

He said his sister is weak, but able to recognise and speak with family members.

While Hibberts has suggested that the accused man, who is reportedly in custody, should be jailed if convicted, other residents argued that a more drastic punishment was suitable for someone who so viciously attacked a child.

One Coolie Town resident, who gave her name as Ms Mitchell, described the incident as “devastating” and commiserated with the young girl’s mother.

“The mother is a single mother who gets a lot of blame sometimes. It is the first I hear people in the community stand up for the mother and talk for the mother and seh she try her best. There is very little that she can do,” she stated.

According to relatives, the child once left home and ignored her mother’s pleas to return until the police intervened.

“I don’t know how I could help her, but if she did just talk more and interact more with her family — because she interacts, but she prefers strangers. So I am saying that if she interacted more with her family, then maybe this would not have reached her,” her brother said.