Three former New Opportunity Corps (NOC) counsellors, who were charged in June 2005 with raping an inmate, were freed at the Essequibo Assizes yesterday afternoon after the case was dismissed.

Cromwell Mentis

Cromwell Mentis, Hutton Christian and Astell Melville were yesterday freed after Justice Dawn Gregory-Barnes dismissed the case. Attorney-at-law Compton Richards represented the men and told this newspaper yesterday that since the High Court trial commenced last week the virtual complainant (VC) had not made an appearance and so the matter was “dismissed based on the discretion of the prosecution”.

The trio was charged on June 20, 2005 and appeared before the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to be read the indictable charge by then Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan. It was alleged that between August 1. 2004 and January 2005 the men had carnal knowledge of the girl without her consent.

At the time the matter was in the magistrate’s court, the VC was already a former inmate of the correctional institution. It was after the VC left the correctional facility that she made allegations of being raped by the three counsellors.

The matter was subsequently transferred to the Suddie Magistrate’s Court where a preliminary inquiry commenced in July 2005 and was concluded in November 2006. It had been decided that the carnal knowledge matter would go to trial in the high court. However, it wasn’t until almost three years later that the matter was finally heard.

Hutton Christian

Mentis told Stabroek News yesterday via telephone that although the matter has been discharged he and his family will never be free of the “stigma” which comes with being labelled “a rapist”.

He explained that at the end of the preliminary inquiry in 2006 the matter was continuously put off, without explanation, and it wasn’t until Richards wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that the case was finally called in the Essequibo Assizes.

“I don’t know why it took them so long to have this trial started,” the man said yesterday, “because other more recent matters were given precedence over ours and our attorney had to write the DPP before anything was finally done.”

Not only did he lose his job after the allegations were made, Mentis said, but he lost his standing in society and his respect. After being employed with the NOC for almost a decade the man was forced to take up photography and farming to provide for his wife and two daughters.

“I am not looking for pity,” Mentis stated, “but what I want to let people know is that once you have been accused of something it no longer matters if you are innocent…you will be labelled, you will be insulted and society will never trust you…and if you are innocent then nobody but the handful of people who know it will ever believe it.”

Astell Melville

After the allegations of sexual misconduct at the correctional facility along the Essequibo Coast were made, President Bharrat Jagdeo had ordered an immediate investigation. Several persons were questioned and the three counsellors were subsequently charged.

Mentis said that he had been in charge of cultural activities and other such social aspects of the NOC while he worked there. Christian, according to him, was at the time the Administration Officer and Melville, the youngest of the accused, worked in the finance department.

“Astell Melville was very young then and it was his first job,” Mentis said. “I know that I suffered with my family but I was already older and had lived a part of my life but he had just started to make something of himself and now his entire life will be tainted by the residues of the matter.”

Over the years, Mentis continued, he was forced to stop appearing in the National Calypso competition for fear of being attacked. However, his love for cultural shows didn’t stop and he continued to participate in local events. Participation was not always so easy, he recalled, because members of the audience would shout “rapist” during a performance.

Mentis also said that his daughters have had a “very hard time” and would come home upset after people had questioned them about the allegations made against him. Despite the hardships, the man stated, his marriage survived, but Christian was not so lucky.

Mentis added: “I have suffered a lot but I am no longer complaining,” the man said, “I want it to be known that I support measures like ‘Stamp it out’ being taken by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to help protect young people from sexual predators and pressures.”