Woman threatened for reporting rape to police

by Lyf Compton

Having to deal with the sexual assault of one’s 10-year-old daughter is one thing, but dealing with threats coming from the relatives of the person who is alleged to have committed the crime is quite another.

That is the position in which a woman in her 20s has been placed, and on Sunday the stress of the situation had her contemplating suicide.

The woman, who reached out to SEARCHLIGHT last Sunday, said on the first day of the Nine Mornings festival last December, her daughter told her that she had something to tell her, but asked that she not be spanked.

“She woke and told me, ‘Duh beat me’ and she told me the boy touch her and I didn’t know what to do,” the distraught woman told SEARCHLIGHT.

The “boy” being referred to is a 21-year-old relative of the woman’s boyfriend. The mother says that her daughter told her that the man had tried to have sex with her on one occasion and on another occasion succeeded in inserting his penis into her vagina.

The mother said on hearing the gut-wrenching news, she took her daughter to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) where she was referred to the Questelles Police Station where the Sexual Offences Unit is located.

She said her daughter was checked by a doctor and it was confirmed that she had been raped.

The mother said that when the police investigations began, family members of the accused began issuing threats.

“The family members keep coming at me and the child…saying things like I should deal with it as a family matter and they would help me with money…one of them waved a cutlass at her (the 10-year-old girl) and calling me and telling me all sorts of things,” the mother revealed to SEARCHLIGHT.

She said the threats have been coming not only from relatives in St Vincent and the Grenadines but also from some living overseas. The angry mother said she has reported the threats to the police, and they have issued warning to at least one of the relatives.

The aggrieved woman noted also that the alleged attacker of her daughter was charged and taken to the Family Court on Wednesday morning and was offered bail.

She however received a strange phone call after the court appearance.

“A relative of his called and asked me how the person getting bail; they don’t have papers or anything for the land, but I just hang up my phone,” the woman said.

On Wednesday, she appeared on Hot 97.1 FM’s AM Mayhem radio show with Luke Boyea, Chris “2 Kool” Jones and Charles “Colombian” Villareal to speak about the incident, but after highlighting her situation she said she was told by a social worker that she should not have gone public.

“Someone from welfare say I not supposed to do what I doing (going public) and the child can be taken from me for that,” the mother reported, while adding that during her public statements she did not say her name, her daughter’s name or the name of the alleged attacker or any of the man’s relatives.

She said she went public with her story so that persons can be made aware of the dangers that exist and to be more careful with children.

SEARCHLIGHT visited the Social Welfare Department on Wednesday to enquire about the caution the woman said she received. However, a senior member of staff said she does not know who told the distraught woman that she should not have gone public, but the matter will be investigated.

The worker added that saying that to someone who is dealing with trauma was wrong, as persons deal with situations differently.