Dear Editor,
I was totally appalled and disgusted when I opened the Kaieteur News of April 11 and turned to the story on page 2, captioned, ‘Mother of 14 year old rape victim speaks out,’ where a mother describes how her 14-year-old daughter was raped by a 35-year-old man on Phagwah day.
I am very upset that the doctor was alleged to have told the mother of this child not to report the matter. It is so sad that we have a Sexual Offences Act which was passed in 2010 and which has not yet been implemented. What is the use of the law when there is no justice? It is our duty to protect children and yet we are doing the opposite. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2010 Section 20 (1) (a) it is an offence to prevent a child from giving a statement to the police.
We are calling on the authorities to implement the Sexual Offences Act so that justice can be given to persons who are raped.
Let not the Sexual Offences Act be another piece of paper sitting on the shelf.
In a separate incident reported in the April 13 edition of Kaieteur News, an 89-year-old woman was brutally raped and murdered at Cove and John Village, East Coast Demerara. To date although the police have arrested several persons nobody has been charged.
In closing, I would like to say that the police need to do a proper job of investigating, taking into account all of the evidence at the crime scene and not waiting a lengthy period (as was reported by the DPP in the Sunday edition of Stabroek News dated March 31) before sending the files to the Director of Public Prosecutions so that the persons committing these acts could be placed before the courts and their victims get justice for the crimes committed against them.
I have gone to court with many survivors of rape and witnessed how the police dealt with matters, and it is disgusting to see how long you have to wait for a trial to get justice for these persons.
Yours faithfully,
Vanessa Ross
Red Thread
