Penal RC Church dedicates Sunday’s mass to slain mother, son

Holy Mass on Sunday at St Dominic's RC Church in Penal is set to be dedicated to the slain mother and her 12-year-old son who lived a short distance away.

Parish priest Fr Robert Christo told Newsday the mass would also be for all other families who have experienced similar tragedies.

It starts at 9 am at the church at Oliverie Drive.

He added, "Catholics and non-Catholics are rallying around the family. People still have a sense of empathy."

Abeo Cudjoe, 31, and her son Levi Lewis were attacked at the family's home at Latchoos Road in the small hours of Tuesday.

Levi was a student of St Dominic's RC School. He sat the Standard Five Secondary Entrance Assessment examination this year and was awaiting his results.

Levi was stabbed in the neck but walked for about ten minutes afterwards to the home of his grandfather, Phillip Harewood, 62, at Penal Rock Road. He later died in hospital.

Cudjoe died on the spot after being chopped and stabbed.

Her other child, a three-year-old boy, was asleep and was not harmed.

Since the tragedy, the priest said, the Catholic community has been offering prayers to the family and other support services to Levi’s schoolmates. He added the school is working with the Education Ministry and Catholic Education Board of Management and they are monitoring the students.

Christo, the school’s manager, said, "The holistic pastoral intervention to the school and family continues. We continue to journey with Cudjoe and family."

On Tuesday, the Catholic News quoted the school’s principal Lynn Moodie, describing Levi as a very outgoing and outspoken child.

"He was a child not afraid to ask questions and make comments…He was a child like that. He was a nice child. I knew him from infant’s department."

On Wednesday, a male relative, 35, whom the police referred to as a "person of interest," surrendered, accompanied by his attorneys. The man is assisting police investigations.

Cudjoe had a restraining order against him for abusing her.