Hours after she learnt that a young man she trusted but who sexually assaulted her had been jailed, a 23-year-old United King-dom woman was still in a state of disbelief because of the manner in which the Anna Regina police had blamed her instead of acknowledging she was the victim.
“After hearing the news I was happy, but still it was unbelievable because I was not expecting to win,” the young former teaching volunteer told the Sunday Stabroek from her UK home. She knew she had an uphill battle from the time she reported the matter to the police and the detective after reading her statement asked her to point out where a criminal offence had been committed.
Rishi Persaud was on Tuesday last sentenced to 18 months by Magistrate Leron Daly for the sexual assault he committed on the World Teach volunteer on January 27 at the Anna Regina Seawall. He was charged under the Sexual Offences Act.
Both Persaud and the woman, who had only been in Guyana for six months prior to the incident, were teachers at the Anna Regina Multilateral School. On the evening in question the two along with others were out having fun when the young woman and her boyfriend had a misunderstanding. In a distraught state she went to the seawall to cool off and Persaud, uninvited, accompanied her and sexually assaulted her there.
The young woman, still traumatised from the experience, told the Sunday Stabroek that when she decided to press charges it was as if she was being assaulted all over again, as initially the police at Anna Regina attempted to dissuade her from doing this.
Hours after the incident she reported it to her country director and she and another female colleague were immediately removed from Anna Regina. It was only a week later that she returned with the director to make a report to the police.
At the station the terrified young woman said she was placed to sit opposite the man who had assaulted her, and as she was relating her experience he kept on interrupting her.
“As I was speaking it was difficult, and I would pause from time to time and each time I paused he would jump in and say things like, ‘Tell me how I violated you,’ and it became very difficult. He was really cocky and arrogant and I felt as if he was being more treated as the victim than I was,” the young woman related.
What made it worse was that at no time did the police officers caution the man about this behaviour.
“The assault was absolutely horrible but the drama really started when I entered the station; by just the manner in which the police officer looked at me, it was as if they were saying it was my fault,” the young woman recalled.
Another unnerving experience was when Persaud was writing his statement. The young woman said even though he was placed in another room to do this he would return from time to time and listen to what she was saying before going back to his statement.
The woman believes that had it not been for the intervention of British High Commissioner Andrew Ayres the police would not have taken her report seriously.
She admitted that after a while she wanted to discontinue the matter but she was grateful for the assistance she received from the people around her, including her colleagues at the secondary school all of whom encouraged her to continue with the matter.
“A lot of people told me I deserved justice when I was questioning whether I deserved what had happened to me,” the woman said, adding that she also became very angry at the young man because of his cocky behaviour and that in itself pushed her to continue with the matter.
“I wanted to make him pay for what he did because that night he stripped me of my power to represent myself,” she said.
In April she returned to Guyana to testify and the experience was very difficult for her. She said that the man’s lawyer kept making her out to be a villain and had the matter not been held in private she feels she would have crumbled, even though her mother was there to support her.
“In his line of questioning he made me come across as this white temptress who had made advances to Mr Persaud, and because he rejected my advances I was seeking revenge by having him charged,” the woman said of the lawyer.
But she is happy for the support she received from all, even random persons in Anna Regina she said, supported her move to seek justice, and without that she does not believe she would have gone through with it.
She said that many persons also forget that in the process she lost her job which was one that she loved very much. She had only been in Guyana for six months when the assault took place, and just when she was making progress with her students she had to be removed and returned to her homeland.
“I was moved because everyone in the community knew what happened, and with the police not being on my side it was felt that it was no longer safe for me,” she responded, when asked why she was removed.
Asked whether she could not have been sent to another country the woman explained that World Teach has departments in various countries and she was with the department in Guyana which felt that it was safer for her to return to her homeland. They were also worried about her mental and emotional well-being and believed that it was better for her to be with her family. She returned to England in mid-February. It was her old field officer who called her and informed her of Persaud’s sentence, and later many of her former colleagues messaged her with the news.
“I really thought the court would not have believed me because of the way the police initially made me feel. I was close to giving up because I did not believe I would win, and now I have won,” she said.
Now, the woman said she would be a lot more careful about trusting people, and advised that all young women should be careful, because it is not everyone who should be trusted. She sees her triumph in court as not a victory for herself but also one for other young women.
She also recommended that young women always fight for their rights, but at the same time ensure that they are safe at all times.
Other volunteers in new countries, she said, should quickly get to know their environment and know whom to contact in case of an emergency.
Before that horrible January 27 night the young woman said she was having a great time in Guyana and she was making so many friends.
She had just started to blend in with the Anna Regina community “and [was] getting to know people and having a really, really good time.
“I had also just found a rhythm with my students; they understood me better and everything in Guyana was just great until that incident,” she said.
But it is not an incident that she would hold against Guyana, and given the opportunity she said she would return as she loves the country especially Essequibo.
Moving on with her life the young woman, who lived in the US before coming to Guyana, said that in September she would be returning to university where she would read for a Masters in ecological conservation.
