Dear Editor,
On March 23, 2015, a 36-year-old West Demerara cane harvester was found guilty of rape of a 10-year-old child and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by Justice Brassington Reynolds, who on sentencing justified the 10 year sentence in large part due to the accused pleading guilty to the crime. Reports in the media indicated that the man abducted the 10-year-old, threatened to kill her, ripped off her clothes and violated her.
This man was also feared in the community, known to be abusive in his intimate relationships and had allegedly burnt down the house of one of his female partners. The maximum penalty for rape of an adult or child is life imprisonment under the Sexual Offences Act.
The Sexual Offences Act defines rape as sexual penetration by a penis or any other body part or object however slight without consent, and as the child was under the age of 16, the issue of consent does not apply.
Sexual offences against children are widespread and pervasive in Guyana, the Childcare & Protection Agency having reported that child abuse cases increased from 900 in 2009 to over 4,000 in 2011, of which 715 were child sexual abuse cases. Additionally, according to the Guyana Times, from January to September, 2014 there were more than 140 reported cases of rape. These figures are alarming and reflect research findings cited by the UNDOC and the World Bank that revealed that 3 of the highest rates of sexual violence in the criminal justice systems worldwide are found in the Caribbean, and that all the Caribbean countries have rated higher than 15 rapes per 100,000, the average among 102 other countries.
In Guyana, the majority of sexual offences are committed against children and occur in an environment in which the rape culture flourishes, fuelled by rape myths, stereotypical and fixed beliefs of gender and gender roles, sexism, homophobia and false notions of masculinity. An environment where the human rights of children to live lives free from all forms of violence, including sexual violence and exploitation, are violated on a daily basis and where the process of re-victimization, when children do tell, adds a second layer of abuse.
Unfortunately, the recent sentence falls into this pattern; the physical and psychological trauma of the child survivor being not understood, ignored or trivialized. The judge seemed more impressed by the accused not wasting the court’s time by pleading guilty, than with sending a clear and strong message that the scourge of rape and sexual violence is not to be condoned or tolerated, and that crimes of this nature should be punished with sentences in keeping with the widespread and escalating number of child victims and the serious psychological scars that remain with and are carried into adulthood by child victims of sexual offences. We do not accept that the deciding factor in reduced sentencing should be the accused pleading guilty.
As women and as advocates against rape and all forms of sexual violence, we will not stand by and allow rapists and paedophiles to receive reduced sentences because of the rape culture that permeates Guyana.
We call for continuing education on sexual violence and its effects, including the physical and psychological trauma of such crimes, to be mandatory for the judiciary, for better informed sentencing in keeping with this horrific violation of young children’s bodies and psyches.
We further call for a review of sentencing on rape cases under the Sexual Offences Act and for an explanation as to what the Judiciary interprets as life imprisonment sentences of those found guilty of rape.
Yours faithfully,
Danuta Radzik
Leila Jagdeo
Josephine Whitehead
Namela Henry
Vidyaratha Kissoon
Mellissa Ifill
Roxanne Myers
Sherlina Nageer
Wintress White
Joy Marcus
Halima Khan
Karen de Souza
Pat Sheerattan Bisnauth
