The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday said it believes that “cruel, inhumane and possibly illegal treatment” by the police of 18-year-old rape complainant, Tonika Calder led to her subsequent suicide.
As condemnation of the police handling of the case rises, the GHRA in a statement said that the “callous behaviour” of the police officers is an “affront to all the institutions and individuals who have worked over the past two decades to have in place a modern Sexual Offences Act”.
Calder’s family believes that the her suicide was a result of the manner in which her complaint was investigated by the police which included a confrontation with the rape accused and a request to provide details of her personal life in front of her mother.
The GHRA statement also called for an explanation from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as to how the advice of ‘no charges to be laid’ could be given in such a short period of time after the death of the complainant without seeking other information, particularly in light of possibly illegal investigatory procedures with the victim’s family.
“Moreover, the contention that a police investigation into the rape allegation could not be carried out because the victim committed suicide is bizarre. The victim’s good reputation and her surviving family deserve no less, even if charges cannot be laid. The behaviour of both the DPP – based on information given to the family – and the GPF show inordinate sensitivity to the rights of the accused while ignoring completely those of the victim,” the GHRA said.
Hours after the story of Calder’s death and the way she was treated by officers at Cove & John appeared in the November 28 Sun-day Stabroek, the police issued a press release stating that an investigation had been launched by its internal affairs unit of the conduct of ranks.
In the Sunday Stabroek report, Calder’s family said they believe she died because of the manner in which she was treated by the investigating ranks.
Yesterday, the family said that while they were pleased that the police have launched an investigation into the conduct of the investigating ranks they will now await the outcome.
“It is nice that they call us and they say they will do an investigation, but you have to wait and see what will happen. The officer who took the statement from us was very professional with us, he was very sympathetic with us, something that we and Tonika did not get from the officers at Cove & John,” Dixie Jordan, sister of Calder, told Stabroek News.
Jordan in an interview with this newspaper had complained that Calder’s death came hours after she was interrogated by investigators at Cove and John Police Station, who forced her to detail her sex life in front of the alleged rapist and her mother.
She said she believed it was this that drove her sister to take her life and said her reputation is being viciously tarnished on Facebook by supporters of the alleged rapist.
“I just want the truth to be out there… My sister’s name is now being tarnished… The police never give her and my family any sympathy; it was as if they were all for the man. They made my sister, a teenager, talk about her sex life in front of this man who claimed he was having a relationship with her and now people saying we wanted money and all that…,” she had said the time.
Instructed
Yesterday, she said that on Sunday – the same day the report appeared in this newspaper – they received call from Commissioner of Police Nigel Hoppie who informed that he had instructed that an investigation be launched and for them to give a statement to Inspector Ali of the Office of Professional Responsi-bility (OPR).
Jordan said while they were skeptical they gave the statement and now they await the conclusion even as they are “trying to pick up the pieces of our lives…”
“The officer was a lot different from those we have been dealing with. There is going to be an investigation, at least that is what the officer said but we don’t know what will happen in the end. We will wait and see what is the outcome,” she further said yesterday.
She said the officer took statements from her, her mother and another sister and he even apologized to them over the manner in which they were treated.
“He was really, really professional, I must say that for sure,” she shared, adding that “We gave him our thing and I guess we have to allow him to do his job. Give him some time”.
Meanwhile, Jordan said she was shocked at the response given to this newspaper by Commander of Region Four ‘C’ Khalil Pareshram.
When contacted by this newspaper prior to the November 28th publication of the article and asked about whether an investigation would be launched into the alleged conduct of his officers, Pareshram, told this newspaper that an investigation was conducted into the rape allegation and legal advice was sought and given and this was conveyed to the family. That advice was that the alleged rapist would face no charges since the complainant was dead.
Asked about an investigation into the handling of the investigation, the commander said the family’s complaint was more about some Facebook posts and that posts were made by parties both for and against the accused. He told this newspaper that the relative making the report opted not to give statements and maintained that it was “primarily” about the Face-book posts and not about the handling of the investigation.
Further, pressed as to whether the ranks involved would be investigated, the commander stressed, “All I am saying [is that] an investigation was done and legal advice was sought”.
Jordan said while they indeed spoke about the Facebook posts as a sister of hers did make a post and the girlfriend of the alleged rapist wanted to pursue the matter, that was not the main complaint that they made. She said their report was primarily about the manner in which their sister was treated during the investigation.
“We told the officer all of that, I was very emotional at that time and so it is very surprising that he would say we reported about Facebook posts, we are not that shallow, our sister is dead and you think all we care about is a photograph on Facebook. We told him about how the officers treated our sister…” the woman said.
Yesterday, the GHRA said the Ministry of Social Protection, which recently received funding through the Spotlight programme, treats violence against women as something to be resolved by “a plethora of projects by a plethora of agencies, rather than a matter of power and political will”.
“The barbed-wire, barrack-room architecture, the weapons and sirens are the complete opposite of what community-oriented policing and the needs of women require,” the association contended.
Why confrontation?
Meanwhile, human rights activist Danuta Radzik in a letter in yesterday’s edition of Stabroek News questioned why a confrontation was facilitated between the alleged rapist and the victim when the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) states clearly that this is unlawful.
“Complainants should never be in the presence of the accused, or other witnesses for the accused, unless for an identification parade by way of audio-visual link, two-way mirror or other means whereby the accused cannot see the complainant,” Radzik said in the letter.
The family of Calder had said that she was questioned about her sexual history in front of the alleged perpetrator and Radzik said the sexual history of a victim, according to the SOA, is only allowed in court in restricted circumstances, and evidence of the complainant’s sexual activity or reputation is restricted.
“… the Cove & John police officers allegedly not only violated the rights of the victim under the SOA by facilitating a confrontation, but then allegedly violated the right of privacy of the victim, and the restriction of use of sexual activity or reputation of victims’ as set out in the SOA,” she pointed out.
She pointed out that it is high time that all police officers in Guyana are trained and have the necessary information and referral lists to ensure that victims of rape and other sexual offences are referred as soon as possible to professional counselling and other forms of therapy which will help them to cope with the trauma of sexual violence.
Further, she noted that the Sunday Stabroek report raises issues of “license, latitude and possible corruption among officers allegedly involved in the case of the 18 yr old student allegedly raped, already traumatized, then allegedly re-traumatized and re-victimized by those whose job it is to professionally investigate all reports of rape and sexual violence, institute charges based on advice from the DPP and have the matter go before the Courts of Guyana for hearing, judgment and penalties”.
Jordan said herself, Calder and her mother had lived outside of Guyana for a number of years. Calder left Guyana when she was nine-years-old and returned when she was 16 years last year and entered fifth form to complete her secondary school education.
“You see we don’t know how things are done. I know in Trinidad where we use to live the police would have already called in someone to counsel my sister and they would have had only female officers to deal with her,” the woman said.
“Nobody is there [at the local station] to advise you or anything. It feels like they literally set you up for disaster and it is horrible to know that those are the people who are in the police force and they are the ones to protect us,” she commented.
