Residents of the George Alleyne Hall at the University of the West Indies (UWI) are livid over 138 Student Living’s handling of the ongoing investigation into an incident where a female student was held against her will and tortured by her estranged partner and former hall occupant, Matthew Hyde.

At a hall meeting on Sunday (February 12), many students expressed their outrage at having to rely on media reports on an incident that occured right under their noses. They highlighted that they as residents were the first point of contact for many in the public about the incident and that they were completely blindsided by the news.

One student said during the meeting: “If you guys were aware from Friday, an advisory could have been sent out stating that an issue occured on hall and what was happening from Saturday. All we were told was that we had to be here today. The Gleaner released an article this morning and that’s how most of us became aware of the situation.”

“It looks bad [that] we didn’t hear it from our hall, we heard it from people outside calling and texting us trying to find out what’s going on.”

Hyde’s name has since been revealed to the public and he has been charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, after allegedly detaining his student ex- girlfriend in his dorm room at the George Alleyne Hall for three days; subjecting her to torture by burning her with a clothes iron.

A video circulating on social media shows the victim displaying burn marks all over her body as evidence of her torture.

Jason McKenzie, director of the Office of Student Services Development (OSSD), said: “The events of Thursday night, I became aware of that on Friday morning. Immediately it became clear that, based on the nature of the events, it was now a police matter.”

He continued: “Campus security received a report and I’m using the words of the report, ‘a student being held against her will’, in a specific room and, within that space, there was a course of action being taken against the student in that room.”

McKenzie said he has already met with the female student and she is currently with her family and arrangements have been made for counselling support for the victim and the female student who reported the matter.

He said he has also reached out to the head of the UWI Counselling Department which is to visit the floor where the incident took place as well as the floor where the victim resided as soon as Monday (February 13) night.

Many of the residents, evidently livid over the hall’s response to concerns about the delay in informing students, shared their thoughts with Our Today.

“All I can say is I’m disgusted by everything that happened. Had I known that he was doing that, there would’ve been no need to call the police to arrest him, that’s all I’ll say,” said one male student.

“There’s no way I’m going to keep staying in a place where somebody can just hold me up for three days so. Must be crazy,” said a female student, clearly shaken by the incident.

One of Hyde’s neighbours told senior members of staff that he never heard any shouts or cries for help from where he was or the room she was detained in and that he has been left very distaught by the incident.

Our Today learned from members of staff on hall that the accused in question was a fairly reserved and quiet person, and it was not unusual for his girlfriend, who also resides on hall, to be at his residence for multiple days at a time. The victim, while fearful for her life, managed to send a recording of herself and her injuries to a close friend and her mother, who then contacted the police on her behalf and facilitated her rescue.