Forty-seven-year-old Carol was raped by her former partner who forced his way into her home and today, more than a year later, she is still seeking justice which she feels may never come.
September 5, 2011 is a date the woman will never forget, as it is on that night Carol told the Sunday Stabroek that the man entered her home and later raped her. She is not ashamed of what happened to her since she did nothing wrong, and if she had her way both her own and the man’s name would be published. When it was explained to her that the man could not be named since he has not been charged with the offence she became even more emotional.
“Is like I can’t get no justice; the police not giving me justice and now you can’t publish he name, but publish the story; I want women out there to read what happen to me and I want people see how poor people don’t get justice in this country,” the woman said.
Carol believes that investigating ranks advised the man what to do to ensure that the matter did not reach the courts, and she alleges that “money pass.”
The Sunday Stabroek contacted the Public Relations Office of the Guyana Police Force and a rank at the office indicated that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has advised that no charges be laid against the man.
However, Carol believes that the only reason the DPP advised that no charges be laid is because the man took another woman to the station who claimed that she was with him at the time of the alleged incident.
“But is months after he carry this woman to the station, is March of this year and is after I went to the DPP office to find out about the matter. Now tell me that ain’t sound strange? I believe is the police who tell he to do that because dem know wah the DPP would say,” the woman said.
‘Hit her’
Carol recalled that she and the man were living together after they struck up a relationship, but things went downhill after a few months when she learnt he was having a relationship with another woman.
“Then it was a steady bickering because the woman use to trouble me and I use to talk and he would get vex and abuse me. One day he hit me, he get violent you know, and I saw I can’t take this thing no more and I report the matter.”
After she reported the matter Carol said the man was charged and he was taken before the courts where a restraining order was entered against him, but she did not return to court for the determination of the matter. She would see the man from time to time since they lived in the same village, but he left her alone and after a while she felt safe and figured he had moved on.
But on September 5 last year at around 11pm she was just about to enter her home after a hard day’s work when the man suddenly appeared and entered the house behind her and closed the door.
“He came into the house and I say, ‘You are not suppose to be around me’ and I become afraid and didn’t say anything else, because I don’t know what he would do.”
According to the woman the man said nothing to her and she decided to retire to bed and it was during the night she said the man raped her.
“I wake up because I feel this weight on me and I ask he what he doing and is then he commit the act. I telling you the truth I did not scream or fight or anything because who woulda hear me? I just lie down and when he done he come off and I wait when it was day and I went straight to the police and report the matter.”
She said after the man left and she was cleaning up she realized that he had dropped his identification card and she also reported this information to the police hoping it would be further evidence that he was indeed in her house.
“But the police had me on a running around back and forth, and then dem tell me that they would call and I have to be going back to them but dem finally arrest he,” she said.
After he was arrested the police sent for her and she gave a statement and at that point she felt that “I was getting somewhere but then months pass and nothing.”
Knowing that the files are sent to the office of the DPP the woman said she visited the office in March of this year and explained her plight, and according to her it was a lawyer from that office who called the police and enquired about the matter. She was later re-invited to the station and it was at that point Carol said she saw the other woman at the station with the man and she later learnt that the woman had given a statement that the man was with at the time she said she was raped.
“Now tell me, after all this time only then this woman come forward? You don’t think something fishy went on?” the frustrated woman queried.
She said later the police did tell her that the DPP had advised that no charges be laid against him but she was not about to give up, because she wants justice.
“Is when the day coming up again I start feeling like this thing happen yesterday, and so I come to the newspaper to publish this story,” the woman explained.
Carol said she was forced to move away from the area and she now rents an apartment in the city because she sees the man regularly and every time she does the pain of what he did to her becomes fresh again.
And when the police informed her that there would be no charges against the man, the officer advised her to seek the services of a lawyer.
“Something that happen to me and I must get a lawyer? I can’t afford a lawyer I don’t have money,” the woman said adding that this is why she decided to approach the newspaper.
“I am not stupid, I mean I ain’t go far in school but I know something happened and now the officer telling I must get a lawyer.”
“Right now this thing got me stress out. I had more size than this and everybody telling me that I looking bad because I taking on this thing, I stress out. But I can’t tell everybody what is wrong with me, because you don’t want everybody to know your business.”
Carol lives alone as her only child lives with a relative, and she said she does not plan on giving up on getting justice for what happened to her.
“I want justice, that is what I am crying out for and I want somebody to help me because this is not right,” the woman said in tears.
