A rank who was probing the rape complaint of 18-year-old Tonika Calder, who later died by suicide, was charged with criminal negligence earlier this year but the matter was thrown out by a magistrate at the Vigilance court because the charge was ruled as “bad in law,” according to sources.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that following the action of the magistrate, the file was sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for legal advice.
Calder died by suicide on November 11, 2021, four days after she alleged she was raped by a taxi driver known to her family. Her death came just hours after she was interrogated by investigators at Cove and John police station, who forced her to detail her sex life in the presence of her mother and the alleged rapist.
Stabroek News yesterday reached out to the force’s communications officer, Stan Gouveia, for an update on the case since the police in November last year had stated that an investigation was launched into the matter following a report by this newspaper.
“The file was sent back to the Divisional Commander with legal advice to take disciplinary action against those ranks who would have committed breaches in relation to investigating the rape allegation,” Gouveia responded to the Stabroek News query.
Later, sources told this newspaper that a rank was actually placed before the court but the matter was later thrown out.
Calder’s family believes that her suicide was a result of the manner in which her rape 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.
Her sister, Dixie Jordan, 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 had said she believed it was this that drove her sister to take her life, adding that her reputation was being viciously tarnished on Facebook by supporters of the alleged rapist.
Contacted yesterday, Jordan said the police did not contact the family on the status of the investigation, revealing that the last time she messaged the inspector who had taken statements from the family members about an update, his response was not pleasing.
She said the officer told her that the ranks at Cove & John related that it was her mother who wanted her sister’s alleged rapist in the room while they were questioning her.
“After what he said, I said to myself the police would not tell the truth and I don’t want this back and forth and it was getting stressful and my sister done dead and gone…” she said.
She has decided not to message the officer again as she was trying to heal from it all.
“But he has my number and nobody contacted me. This is something that devastated my family because right now is just me in the house because we had to send my mother away to Barbados because she and Tonika was so close. We said before we lose our mother too might as well we send her away and my nephews don’t want to come to this country anymore,” the sister disclosed.
She opined that had the police at Cove & John dealt with the matter in a more professional manner, her sister would have been alive even as she pointed out that the police attempted to blame the family after her sister’s death by accusing them of ill-treating the teenager.
“My sister knew we would have never allowed something like that to happen and not do anything about it. There is evidence in the phone which we gave to the officer [who was in charge of the police internal investigation] explaining what the man did to her and the investigating ranks had it too and they released the man,” she said.
“We live out of Guyana for a while and they took advantage of us. Had the family been advised how to go about this in the correct way none of this would have happened,” the woman continued as she reminded that they had only recently returned to Guyana to live.
At the time of her death, Calder was preparing to write her CXC exams and her sister said that while some have pointed out she was an adult, as far as her family was concerned, she was a schoolchild who needed protecting.
The entire affair has caused Jordan to harbour a “terrible dislike for police in Guyana.”
“I can’t believe a system that is supposed to protect its citizens that is what they are doing. The person who did the act is protected and the person who was violated became the villain.”
“God knows best; my sister is dead and may she rest in peace and we just have to try pick up the pieces,” the woman said sadly.
Late last year, the Guyana Human Rights Association said it believed the “cruel, inhumane and possibly illegal treatment” by the police caused the dead of Calder. They had also called for an explanation from the office of the DPP as to how the advice of ‘no charges to be laid’ could have been 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 had stated at the time.
