http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0711GuyanaHands11-ON.html

Man gets 15 years for hacking off wife's hands
Associated Press
Jul. 11, 2003 09:45 AM

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - A judge has sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for hacking off his wife's hands.

Courtney Purlette, who was sentenced Thursday, said during his trial that he attacked his common-law wife and mother of his three children because he thought she was cleaning another man's shoe.

Prosecutors said Purlette used a machete to attack Sonia Hinds, a former security guard, in August 2000. She lost both of her hands and partial use of an eye during the attack in Mocha village, seven miles south of the capital of Georgetown.

Purlette, who was convicted of grievous bodily assault, said he regretted the attack.

Prosecutors in the South American country of 700,000 people called it the one of the worst cases of domestic abuses they had seen.

There have been more than 1,100 reports of domestic abuse this year, compared to 777 last year and 627 in the previous year, police said.