A British couple left for dead in a horrifying Caribbean machete attack were furious today after the case against their alleged assailant was dropped.
Terrified Peter and Murium Green suffered life-changing injuries after an unprovoked assault at their home on the paradise island of Tobago in 2009.
Peter, 65, was blinded in one eye by the vicious attack and Murium, 59, had part of her jaw cut off after a man carrying a large machete burst into their holiday home.
The couple, of Wellington, Somerset, bear deep physical and mental scars from their horrifying ordeal.
But now they have learned the case against their alleged attacker – convicted burglar Clint Alexis – has been dropped by the Caribbean authorities.
The British High Commission in the country yesterday confirmed a court had ”discharged” the two attempted murder charges against the 27-year-old – citing a lack of evidence.
Furious Peter Green, who still suffers horrendous flashbacks of the nightmare attack, slammed the decision as an ”affront to justice”.
He said: ”It’s an absolute disgrace that a human being is walking about somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago that has inflicted this on us – and maybe lots of other people as well.
”It’s absolutely outrageous.
”I don’t know whether this man is guilty or not but it is certainly an affront to justice that he has not been tried.
”The authorities want us to go back over there but they do not consider the mental, as well as physical scars we have.
”I woke up to find the machete had gone into my brain and opened up my skull. Then I woke up from a coma three weeks later – what can I possibly tell them about that night?
”The machete hit my wife’s lower mandible so hard it dislocated it.
”It was a complete miracle that we both survived, now we want someone brought to justice.”
Murium, who now has a large scar running across here face where the knifeman sliced off part of her jaw, also begged for justice.
She said: ”Everyday ever since I got back to England I’ve looked in the mirror and I’ve damned that man to hell.
”This has been dismissed and what does that mean? Because of the distance between here and there you just don’t know.
”So – we start again I guess.”
The couple were left in a pool of blood after the night-time attack on August 1, 2009, and would have died if Murium had not regained consciousness and crawled to get help.
Retired hotelier Peter was put into a medically-induced coma and had to learn to walk again because of the severity of his injuries.
He was left blind in one eye, numb down the left-hand side of his body and is now partially disabled.
Murium has also had to undergo hours of cosmetic surgery on her face.
The couple have had to shell out thousands of pounds of their life savings on their own care because EU rules mean they do not qualify for help.
They have not dared to set foot in Tobago again since the attack, after finding death threats against them written in online blogs.
Alexis was arrested last year and charged with two counts of attempted murder and stood trial in Scarborough Magistrates’ Court, Tobago, this week.
But a court report from the Trinidad Express on Monday claimed that Senior Magistrate Annette McKenzie had thrown out the charges.
The paper reported: ”Magistrate McKenzie, who had fixed the matter to proceed on three previous occasions, was yesterday presented with a medical certificate which in effect stated the Greens were unable to travel to Tobago to testify based on their traumatic state, and a request was made for them to give evidence via video conferencing from England.
”Police prosecutor Sgt Dunstan Campbell, when questioned by the magistrate about the medical certificate, said the matter was out of his hands.
”McKenzie called on the prosecutor to call his first witness, but as he was unable to do so he offered no further evidence.
”The matter was then dismissed.”
The newspaper reported that Alexis was not immediately released as he is currently serving a four-year prison sentence for a house-breaking and larceny last year.
Eric Jenkinson, the British High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago, confirmed the case against Alexis, of Breadfruit Alley, Argyle, in Tobago, had been discharged.
He said he understood that the magistrate had wanted Mr and Mrs Green to return to the island to give evidence.
But the couple, originally from Reading, Berkshire, say they are too frightened to go back after threats posted online had claimed they would be killed.
Mr Jenkinson said: ”The magistrate, as I understand it, has basically said there was not enough evidence and in part wanted Mr and Mrs Green to come back here.
”I’m disappointed that it’s reached this stage.
”They went through an extraordinary experience. I saw them after the attack and it was horrific. They chose not to come back I can understand that.
”It’s taken a long time to get this far and the judicial system here is notoriously slow, but we’re pressing all the buttons that we can.”
He stressed that having a case discharged was not the same as having it dismissed, so it still remained active.
And Peter insisted that when his metal and physical injuries have healed more, he would be prepared to face a Caribbean court.
He said: ”If they are going to make me suffer by making me get on a plane and go to Tobago – then I will do it.
”I’m not ready yet, but hopefully I will be this year.”
This is disgraceful; I so feel for Mr. and Mrs. Green.