From the age of 11 years old, she was repeatedly raped by a relative. This went on for years and even though she reached out to relatives and even a schoolteacher, no one believed her. Instead, she was taken to a pastor, who prayed for her.
Today, just a month shy of her twentieth birthday, the young woman is fighting for justice three years after she made an official report to the police. In her fight, she has knocked on many doors, but most were slammed in her face and she has now become frustrated. Her first report to the police, when she was around 16, resulted in her being handcuffed and detained on a bench for hours, she said, because the police said they had received a report that she was using drugs.
“All I want is justice, nothing else,” she told Stabroek Weekend in an interview.
The young woman has approached the offices for the Commissioner of Police, the Crime Chief, the Police Complaints Authority, the Director of Public Prosecu-tions (DPP) and even the Office of the President. Her husband, whom she said she met about three years ago and later married, has been with her every step of the way since she disclosed to him what had happened.
After almost three years, the alleged rapist was arrested in December, but was released on Christmas Day.
The man was released even though the DPP had given the police advice to charge him with rape. Efforts to locate him after that proved futile.
In a follow-up interview, the young woman said she has been assured that the man would be arrested and placed before the court shortly.
‘House to house’
She is still hurt that neither of her parents, who have been separated since she was a young child, sought justice for her. Neither has been supporting her in the quest. She has not heard from her father in years and he has never believed that the man, his relative, raped his daughter. “My father and I never had a close relationship… I does talk to my mother, but she don’t really support me with this thing,” she said. She is the eldest child for both her parents and the only one they share.
Recalling her childhood, the young woman said she lived from “house to house.” She does not remember a stable home environment until her father sent her to live with an aunt. But what she thought was a stable home, turned out to be a nightmare.
“I still remember the first night like if it was yesterday. I was sleeping and is like I wake up because I feel this cold metal thing on me belly and when I open me eye he was on top of me and he had a knife and that was pressing on me belly,” she said.
The young woman said she jumped and fought off her cousin, who was just about 16 at the time, while she was 11. But he kept fighting her and trying to get back into the bed with her.
“He wasn’t saying anything. It’s like he was waiting for me to get tired and just trying to fight me all the time, but I fight back and then after a time he went back in he room,” she said.
The next morning, the young woman said, she immediately told her aunt who even without speaking to her son told her she was imagining things. Her son later denied the allegation and her aunt called a neighbour, a pastor, who prayed for her.
“The next night he come back and put the knife to me throat and this time he rape me. It was so painful and is like I want scream, but I couldn’t scream and then next morning I was in so much pain and when I tell me aunt, she tell me is a lie.”
The young woman said for almost two years her cousin repeatedly raped her in the night and his mother did nothing to protect her even though she told her from time to time.
She related that she once picked up a vaginal infection and her aunt took her to the doctor.
“But she didn’t allow me to speak and the doctor never examine me or anything. My aunt was standing behind me when I sitting on the chair and she told the doctor what was happening and he just give a tablet to drink, he never examine me,” she said sadly.
The rape continued.
“It get so much, that I tell my class teacher and she come home by my aunt. She didn’t carry me to the police or anything. She and my aunt call another pastor and he pray for me. I still keep complaining because he continue to rape me and like me aunt get fed-up and she send me to live by me grandmother,” the young woman shared.
However, two weeks later, her father called and stated that she should be returned to her aunt’s house “since he never lef me to live by me grandmother.”
She was returned and the rapes continued. Eventually, the young woman said, her stepmother, on hearing what was happening, removed her from the home and sent her to live with another aunt in another region.
“Is like I know where my father was living, and I would visit but he never take me to live with him even though I would visit. And my mother she use to live in the bush. I never live with her but one day I tell her, and she tell me to run away with her to the bush, but I was afraid,” she further explained.
She remained with the second aunt until it was time for her to write the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examination. At that point, her father removed her from the private institution she was attending, while indicating that he was not paying for her to write the examination.
‘Handcuffed’
According to the young woman, it was around that same time she decided to report the matter to the Charity Police Station and it was there she was handcuffed and placed to sit on the bench for hours before she was released.
“This is how the police treat me. They say how somebody say I was using drugs and I think it was me aunt. I don’t know what she tell the police, but they had me and questioning me and then after them let me go,” she said.
Not deterred, she said, she checked with the station several times, but they never arrested the man and had no updates to give her. Shortly after this, she started living with her mother and it was while working at a supermarket that she met her husband.
“My mother know what happen to me, but she is not really intelligent, and she didn’t do anything to help me,” the young woman said.
Her husband, then her boyfriend, started to visit her at home and at some point, her mother indicated that she was returning to the interior and sent her to live with the man. They got married shortly after, she was about 18 at the time.
The young woman said she is depressed most of the time and being intimate with her husband was sometimes a difficulty.
“I had to tell him what happen to me. It wasn’t easy, but I had to tell him because of how I was behaving…,” she said.
After she told her husband, the woman said, they decided to make a report at Eve Leary given what transpired at the Charity Police Station. She eventually returned with police officers to the home as an investigation was launched.
“When we meet is like I was afraid to go into the house and I stay outside, and I watch the police go to the house, but they didn’t go in the room and so to see where it happen. They stand up at the door and when we come back to town the woman police want me to sign a statement saying how I see them go in the house and because I didn’t sign it she get vex and tear up the paper.”
She said the teacher to whom she had initially reported the matter was contacted by the police and she gave a statement, but she is unsure as to its content.
“I want them to know that I was not lying and that even though I was a child I look for help so I tell them about the teacher,” she said.
The woman related visiting many offices which resulted in her husband being charged once, because of how he behaved at one of the offices.
“It is just the frustration, you know. We going everywhere and they still ain’t arresting this man,” she said.
Eventually, she found out that the man was at his mother’s home and she alerted the police and he was arrested but was released on Christmas Day.
‘Different places’
“We went to different places but is like people just keep pushing us around and is like I now getting justice,” she said.
She spoke of her frustration during the initial interview but at a later interview she expressed optimism that the man might finally be charged and placed before the court.
“I don’t know why it take so long. He rape me and all I want is justice. You know he use to even rape me when I was seeing my menstruation? It was terrible and today I can’t forget it,” the young woman said.
“I go through a lot of depression and now since the doctor tell me that maybe I can’t have children, it is worse. Sometimes it does be too much,” she added.
“It been hard for me. Now I just want some justice and some peace. I want to just live a normal life, but I want justice,” she pleaded.
