(Jamaica Gleaner) Outraged by the recent spate of rapes, including the violation of an eight-year-old girl at gunpoint while her mother was held captive in nearby bushes, several prominent Jamaicans have joined a groundswell calling for stiffer penalties for sexual predators.
Late last week, the police announced that they were questioning two brothers in a bid to find the perpetrators of the rape of five females that took place in Irwin Point, St James. But, that has done little to console the Jamaicans who are baying for the blood of the attackers.
Dorcy Williams, grandmother of Ananda Dean – the 11-year-old girl in whose honour the national abduction alert mechanism known as Ananda Alert was named after she was raped and murdered in September 2008, called on the Jamaican Government to up the ante on punishment meted out to convicted sexual offenders.
“The gallows in Spanish Town are getting very rusty and they need to be used, and it is time we start using them on these rapists. The raping of children is just as bad as committing a murder … we need to start hanging these rapists,” said Williams, the paternal grandmother of Ananda.
Williams’ call for the death penalty for rapists came during a march in the Corporate Area last Friday condemning violence and sexual crimes against the nation’s women and children.
Under Jamaican law, only persons convicted of capital murder can face the death penalty, which is still on the books but has not been actioned in years.
Renato Adams, retired senior superintendent of police, said laws should be passed allowing for the castration of persons found guilty of raping a minor.
“Those who rape girls under the age of consent should be castrated and given a sentence of 30 years at hard labour. If they rape and kill the victim, the gallows is a must,” said Adams.
The controversial crime fighter, who is now the managing director of Adams Security Management Unit, said his suggestion was not an emotional or knee-jerk response.
“Our women and children, including our boys, have been suffering at the hands of these beasts and cannibals, and nothing effective is being done to stop them,” contended Adams.
He added: “These are innocent people who can’t defend themselves, and their dignity has been taken away completely.”
The retired crime fighter also told The Sunday Gleaner that his sojourn to other parts of the world revealed to him that Jamaica needs stiffer punitive measures to deter predators from raping women and children.
“I went to Africa in 1989 and in a part of that country and its environs if you stole anything, they would cut off your hand, but when I reached and went around I didn’t notice a lot of one-handed persons. I was surprised,” Adams recalled.
The former tough-talking cop said a policeman and an attorney in the African nation he visited explained to him that not many one-handed persons are seen walking around because the weight of the punishment for stealing was sufficient to act as a deterrent.
Swift action in court
Adams also called for the swift trying of rape cases because persons charged for rape and released on bail often continue to commit their heinous crimes while on the road.
This, the ex-cop said he knew from personal experience. “They shouldn’t be given bail until the charge is dealt with, so cases of this nature should be cleared in a year,” argued Adams.
Meanwhile, Percival LaTouche, president of the Association for the Resettlement of Returning Residents, who has offered in the past to be the country’s hangman, joined the chorus calling for the death penalty for rapists.
“Once you catch them, try them fast … then they should be taken into the square of the area where they committed the crime, and hang them up high. Hang them without any mercy,” said LaTouche.
He added: “If they want a hangman, give me a flask of white rum and I will drop them one by one. I don’t want any pay for it. I wouldn’t even blink an eye.”
Same punishment
LaTouche shared the view that there is no difference between raping a woman or child and committing a murder and said both crimes should attract the same punishment – death.
He argued that Jamaica’s lawmakers need to get their act together and stop passing laws without the political will to enforce them.
“If you pass laws until God comes and you don’t enforce them, it is a waste of time so you can just forget it,” said LaTouche.
Betty-Anne Blaine, convenor of the group Hear the Children’s Cry, told The Sunday Gleaner that life without the possibility of parole should be the minimum punishment handed to rapists.
“I think that some of these sexual crimes deserve the strongest punishment that any society can give and that is the death penalty. It is tantamount to murder. At the very least, they should get life imprisonment without parole.”
The children’s rights advocate was adamant that the punishment prescribed under law must be commensurate with the crime. “We have to send the strongest message and stamp it out,” said Blaine.
“People are getting away because they are not being caught, and if caught the laws are not stiff enough. When they go before the court they get a slap on the wrist,” said Blaine.
