Just over a week after she was brutally raped by a man known to her, a 21-year-old mother of one is hoping that the police would conduct a speedy and thorough investigation and place the perpetrator before the courts.
Expressing the fear that the crime would be swept under the carpet, the young woman said that since the incident two Wednesdays ago she has been bombarded by calls from the relatives of the man demanding that she “settle the matter.”
Her fear that the crime committed against her may not see the light of day is rooted in the fact that the man has a relative in the police force; a senior functionary of the government agency where he works has suggested the matter be “worked out”; the manner in which she was treated by the policewoman investigating the report and more importantly that the police made her do two medicals – one right after the incident and the second after she would have taken a bath.
“I just want the matter to go to court even though I frighten because he could just hire a big lawyer and I don’t know anything about the court. I want the police to do their work but I think they don’t want charge he that is why I want the story in the papers,” the woman told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
Even though she was battered, bruised and had evidence of the man’s semen on her skin when she ran screaming for help to a police mobile patrol, the woman is still afraid that her case could be discarded. The traumatised young woman said her life is now as a nightmare as not only can she not forget the horrible ordeal, but the perpetrator is in the habit of laughing at her whenever he sees her in the street.
Nevertheless, the young mother said she will fight for justice though the system seems to be stacked against her.
Recounting the horrible ordeal, which torments her to a state of insomnia, the young woman said it started after she accepted the man’s offer to transport her to her destination on the night of October 22. At the time she had her baby in her arms and was on her way to leave him with his sitter before going to the police station over another matter.
The woman, who hails from a West Bank Essequibo village, said the man is known to her as he is a friend of a close male associate. As such, when he stopped and offered her a lift that night she did not hesitate to accept. She said she was a little surprised to find him waiting after she had dropped off her child at the sitter, but got into the man’s car a second time.
“As soon as I get in the car again I hear he lock it and I get frighten. And when he turn in a different direction, I ask he where he going and I start crying and screaming and he tell me ‘shut you f…ing mouth, you know how long I want you? But you don’t give me a chance.’”
The man then drove to a desolate place and ordered her out of the car, and she decided to try and make a run for it. But he chased behind her and threw her to the ground before raining blows on her frail body. He then dragged her kicking and screaming back to the car.
“You see all of these marks? Is from he…,” the young woman said as tears flowed down her cheeks.
She choked with shame as she recalled the sex acts the man forced her to perform; his crazed attack gaining momentum after he watched a pornographic video on his cellular phone.
Afterwards, he threw a tin of energy drink at her and instructed her to wash her face and other parts of her body with it. She refused and he promptly opened the tin and threw and contents in her face.
He then enquired if the horrific ordeal would remain between the two of them. The woman said initially she did not answer, but then realized she needed to agree as she was still at his mercy. “I didn’t know what else he had plan for me. I say maybe he would kill me. So I tell he yes. And when he ask me if he could see me again I say yes too,” she said.
She was then instructed to get into the car and the man drove out to a main road. During the journey, he threw a $5,000 note at her. As they approached the main road, the woman said, she decided to make a dash for it and as she escaped from the car and ran up the road she saw a police mobile patrol which stopped and assisted her.
Her perpetrator drove away but was apprehended shortly after by the police. At the time he was topless, as he had removed his vest and used it to wipe his privates when he had finished assaulting her and had thrown it in his car trunk.
When he was confronted with the allegation, the woman said, the man denied knowing her, but even as she sat in the police vehicle he called her on her cellular phone, hanging up after saying “hello.”
She said the police who apprehended him that night should have done more, as, according to her, they did not check the trunk of his car nor did they check his cellular phone.
That same night, she was given a medical form and sent to the hospital. She said all of the evidence was there for the doctor, who did a thorough job. The medical was returned to the police and she was instructed to visit the main police station in the area the following day.
“My body was paining all over and I could hardly walk but I still went…,” she said.
Her effort was almost in vain as the policewoman she was sent to, told her that she was the only one there and she had a lot of work and that “I should come back another day to give a further statement.” This was after she would have explained why she was there.
“I felt like crying but I just say okay. I walked to a supermarket close by and she followed me and told me to come back and then send me to another policewoman to take the statement,” she related. She was then given another medical form and told to visit the hospital.
“I don’t know why they did that because I done bathe and everything but when I ask later they claim is two medical [needed for the investigation]. I hoping that the first one really in the file,” she said.
Four days after she gave the statement, the woman said, she had heard nothing else from the police. However, she was being threatened by the man’s relatives who told her to “tek the lil money and go long my way.” A senior official at the government agency where the man works also suggested to someone known to the young woman that the matter be settled. She then learnt that the man had given a statement to the police claiming that the two of them had a relationship. This was after he had denied knowing her to the police on the night of the incident.
Concerned, the woman said, she returned to the police station and met with the commander of the division who summoned the investigating woman officer to his office. The policewoman then said that she had tried calling her on her cellular phone twice and got no answer. “I don’t know but I did see two calls from a private number, which I did not answer because this man’s relatives only calling me all the time.”
She was then told that she needed to take the police to the scene of the crime but they had to wait for an available police vehicle.
“I wait at the station from midday till about six that afternoon and by the time we reach the area it was night and them ain’t see nothing. Then she [the police officer] start asking me all kinds of question that I think didn’t make sense, but she was vex because I went to the commander. She start asking me what he teeth look like, what he hand look like, what he face look like, when it happen and when I tell she it was dark, she tell me I have to tell she something…”
The last she heard of the matter was that the file had been sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and she is hoping that justice will soon be served.
“I don’t know why this had to happen to me,” she sobbed. “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I just so frighten all the time and is like me alone. And I know he know nuff people.”
Though scared, she is determined to see the matter through. “I learn long ago that nobody really don’t care about you and you have to battle it on your own… I need justice.”
