(Barbados Nation) Emotions ran high yesterday when accused Derick Crawford came face to face for the first time with the two British women he is accused of raping.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been an angry confrontation but the threesome almost embraced each other.
Rachel Turner, 30, and Diane Davies, 63, were at the Holetown Magistrates’ Court to take the witness stand to declare that Crawford, 48, was not the man who raped them on separate occasions in October 2010.
The two women, along with British actress Hillary Heath, who was also raped while on holiday in Barbados in 2004, are providing the funds for attorney at law Andrew Pilgrim to represent Crawford.
The case, however, was adjourned until Friday because there was no sitting of the court. Also on hand was British High Commissioner Paul Brummell.
Despite the sentiments expressed by the women that police charged Crawford to protect Barbados’ tourism image, Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin maintained yesterday that the “team of investigators who were tasked with investigating these assaults are firmly of the view that the evidence strongly supports the decision to arrest and charge Mr Crawford”.
