Police at the Turkyen Police Station are yet to arrest the man accused of brutally raping a 14-year-old girl two weeks ago and the child is now scared to remain at home or venture out on the street alone. The girl’s mother yesterday told this newspaper that the young man contacted them by phone and professed his innocence stating that he will be turning himself into the police to “clear his name” but he is yet to do so.
“Right now this child screaming in the night and waking up and she scared to stay alone. We just want the police to catch this boy and let the matter go to court,” the child’s mother said yesterday.
She said her daughter returns to school tomorrow but she has to go with her and wait for her because she is scared to go alone.
The girl was in front of her home one evening when the man grabbed her and took her to an empty lot where he raped her. The young man is known to her as he conducts a popular bus in the area.
After the ordeal she returned home bloodied and crying and told her parents of her ordeal and they immediately took her to the station but were told by the officers on duty that she should return the next day to be taken to the hospital for a medical. She returned with her mother but was made to wait 8 hours for a female officer to take them to the hospital. At the hospital the female officer left the victim and her mother alone and proceeded to chat with her colleague in the police outpost located in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). The triage nurse upon hearing the child’s ordeal informed that they had to visit the out-patient department or the nearest health centre in their community and it was only after her father visited the hospital and protested loudly that the child was seen by a doctor and later counselled.
Stabroek News understands that following the publication of the child’s ordeal at the station, an investigation has been launched into the behaviour of the police officers.
Human rights activist Karen deSouza in a comment to this newspaper had condemned the actions of the lawmen and said that it went against the provisions set out in the new Sexual Offences Act.
