Dear Editor,

I am pleased to have read that Magistrate Ann Marie Smith of St Lucia has jailed the mother of a rape victim for doing nothing about her daughter’s complaint that she was raped, even though the mother knew about it.

I am sorry that this initiative did not emanate from the magistracy in Guyana. I am fed up seeing mothers bringing their daughters to be checked up to see if they were sexually molested – and when this appears to have happened doing nothing about it.

Many of the perpetrators are named in the presence of the mother – stepfather, father, uncle, stepbrother, brother, friend, neighbour, etc. Many mothers prefer to accept it rather than lose the support of the perpetrators – and in one recent case that appeared on TV, told the daughter to apologise to her stepfather for making such an allegation.

The magistrate in St Lucia should be given a national award for this bold initiative – and this action should be emulated by the magistracy in Guyana.

Yours faithfully,

M Y Bacchus