TORONTO – A 17-year-old girl whose body was found in a burning suitcase two decades ago suffered brutal beatings, food deprivation and gut-wrenching abuse at the hands of her father before she died, her half-brother testified Monday.
“I go through a lot but she go through more than me. I see her there suffering,” a tearful Cleon Biddersingh told the trial of Everton Biddersingh, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of his daughter Melonie.
“Even a prisoner couldn’t live like that.”
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The case of Melonie’s death remained unsolved for over 18 years as police were unable to identify the girl’s charred remains until they received a tip that led to the arrest of Biddersingh and his wife in March 2012. Elaine Biddersingh’s first-degree murder trial is to begin next April.
On the witness stand on Monday, Cleon, now 41, recalled how he, Melonie and another half-brother, Dwayne, came to Toronto from Jamaica in 1991 to live with their father and his wife.
At the time, the opportunity was a dream come true, he said, but it soon turned into a nightmare.
The children wanted to go to school, as they had done in Jamaica despite the poverty they lived in – Melonie in particular wanted to be a nurse – but their father did not allow it, court heard.
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Instead, the siblings were made to clean the family’s small apartment and Cleon was forced to sell drugs for his father, court heard. Jurors have been told Dwayne died accidentally in June 1992.
As time passed, Everton Biddersingh’s treatment of the children he brought over from Jamaica worsened, court heard.
READ MORE: Trial begins for father charged in 1994 death of teenage daughter found in suitcase
WARNING: Content May Disturb Some Readers.
Cleon said he was the first to be mistreated as Biddersingh’s wife began claiming he wasn’t Biddersingh’s son. She made Cleon take a DNA test – which proved Biddersingh was his father – but the boy was still made to sleep on the floor, eat separately and had his food rationed, court heard.
Biddersingh and his wife fought frequently and at one point she left him for a few weeks, taking Melonie and her other children with her, court heard.
When they returned, Everton’s abuse of Melonie began, Cleon said, noting that his father appeared to think Melonie had tried to keep his wife away from him.
“If he’s upset about something he would just kick us, just kick us in the stomach or kick us in the head,” Cleon said, pointing to a scar on his face.
Cleon and Melonie were treated as domestic labourers – they had to answer whenever Biddersingh rang a buzzer for them, were responsible for the state of the apartment, cooked, did laundry, took care of Biddersingh’s other children and lived in fear of their father’s wrath, court heard.
“We get treatment like we’re just a worker in the house or a slave,” Cleon said, noting that he and Melonie weren’t allowed to sit on any of the furniture, watch television or eat food unless it was served to them.
“We didn’t feel loved … we were like a machine.”
Over time, Melonie was abused far more than Cleon, court heard.
“The least little thing she’d do, he’d get angry with her,” Cleon said of his father. “Sometimes I think he wanted to hit Elaine but he hit Melonie, he turned everything on Melonie. I wish she was sitting here telling her side of the story.”
Jurors heard that Biddersingh would drag Melonie across the floor, throw her against walls and stomp on her as she lay in pain on the ground. She was also called “evil” and “the devil,” court heard.
“We were scared for our life,” said Cleon. “We can’t go home, we didn’t have a future.”
Biddersingh’s treatment of his daughter grew even worse in the months before her death, jurors heard.
Her food was rationed or withheld altogether, she was confined in a closet and a barrel at times, chained to the furniture, had her head put down a flushing toilet and was made to bathe and relieve herself on the apartment balcony, Cleon said.
“Melonie was weak,” he said, adding that eventually his sister was too sick to stand. “She can’t even put on her clothes, I have to clean her.”
The only time Melonie left the apartment by herself, she made it as far as the third step in a nearby stairwell and told Cleon, who found her, that it would be better if she was dead, court heard.
The jury has heard that Melonie died on Sept. 1, 1994. Cleon said Biddersingh told him Melonie had run away.
Expert evidence expected in the case will indicate Melonie had 21 “healing fractures” caused three weeks to six months before her death, the jury has heard. Expert evidence is also expected to indicate that Melonie inhaled water shortly before her death.
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