A Guyanese monk who was attached to a Catholic monastery in Trinidad has been accused by three women of repeatedly raping them when they were children, one from seven years old.
The Mount St Benedict Monastery of Trinidad issued a statement last week following the release of a video by the first accuser, saying that it found the incident disturbing and it is being reviewed.
“It has come to our attention that on 23rd June 2020, a video was published on social media, in which certain allegations have been made against a monk formerly associated with the Mount Saint Benedict Monastery and St Bede’s Vocational School,” the monastery said in a statement on its Facebook page on June 25th.
“The allegations raised in this video are deeply disturbing to us and are currently under review; we shall continue to monitor our policies and controls to prevent incidents of this nature. Mount Saint Benedict takes the allegations raised in the video very seriously and strongly condemns harassment and abuse of any kind. Such actions are contrary to the principles and teachings of the Church and monastic life,” it added.
The institution said that it would “be in contact with the young woman concerning the contents of the video and we extend our prayers and support to her at this time.”
The monk at the centre of the allegations has returned to Guyana and now lives here.
However, Bishop of Georgetown Francis Alleyne told Stabroek News that the man “was a member of the religious order…but he has no official role in the Catholic Diocese here.”
The three women told harrowing stories of alleged child rape at the hands of the monk.
The first of the three women last week recalled her story in an emotional video on Facebook and later to a Trinidad and Tobago news outlet. She related how she suffered repeated rape from age seven to 12 at the hands of the alleged perpetrator when he was her teacher at the St Bede’s Vocational School, located at the church.
After the story went public, two other women came forward and told similar stories, alleging that the monk took advantage of them because they were poor and their mother a devout Catholic.
“I know the family involved too. She was not the only one. There were many others too. The said individual was a monk and not a priest first of all. He did a lot of community work and preyed on children, both male and female. The Abbey did nothing spectacular about it other than to send him back to his native Guyana…,” one former parishioner said.
Stabroek News yesterday contacted Trinidad and Tobago Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith and he said that he had no comment as his police department does not comment on matters being investigated.
Guyana Police Force (GPF) Public Relations Officer Jairam Ramlakan said that to his knowledge, the GPF has not received any report from their regional counterparts.
