Two men were on Monday each granted $100,000 bail after being charged at a city court with the rape of the young Amerindian woman, who said she had been drugged and attacked by more than one man at the hotel where she worked in Mahdia, Region Eight.
Mark Gobin, 21, of Zeeburg, West Coast Demerara (WCD) and Deonandand Persaud, 19, of Leonora, WCD were charged with the woman’s rape, according to information from the Police Public Relations Office.
They were not required to plead to the indictable charge when it was read to them.
The filing of the charge against the two men comes in the wake of continuing protests over the authorities’ inadequate response to rape cases, which were sparked by the woman’s experience in seeking justice.
The woman had recounted to Stabroek News that she was conscious during the rape but she was unable to fight back, which convinced her that she was drugged.
Accompanied by a friend, she had gone to the police at Mahdia to make a report. However, after a frustrating experience at the station, she quickly came to the realisation that there was no chance of her gaining justice as long as the allegation resided in Mahdia.
It was subsequently revealed that no rape investigation had been undertaken. Commander of ‘F’ Division Courtney Ramsey had said that the police had already sent the file to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and had been advised that one man would have been charged with assault causing actual bodily harm. “The woman never said she was raped; she said she had sex with some boyfriend or something like that, and that when he left the room another man come in and he like assault her, bite she up on her body…,” he said.
The complainant refuted this, noting that what she did say to the police at Mahdia was exactly what she had said earlier—that she was aware of the man having sex with her but was unable to stop him because of the state she was in.
According to the Sexual Offences Act 2010, “Consent and belief in consent cannot be inferred by – (a) reason of silence or lack of physical resistance on the part of the complainant…”
The woman and her friend took a decision to travel to the city to lodge a complaint and they sought out campaigner against human trafficking Simona Broomes, who agreed to assist them. With her help, they were facilitated at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Eve Leary.
Following complaints by local groups that were outraged by the situation and the submission of photographic and other evidence, the DPP advised the police to widen their investigation.
