A 35-year-old Central woman who was allegedly raped, severely beaten with a hammer and had her life threatened by a man is now calling for police intervention, after allegedly being told by her attacker that nothing will happen if she reports the matter to the cops.
The woman, who was visibly shaken, distraught and scared after she said she was raped twice by her attacker, brought her story to the T&T Guardian. She is calling it a never-ending nightmare she is trying to wake from. This, she says, is because all the reports she made to police at the Morvant, Belmont and Point Fortin Police Stations have been ignored and the perpetrator is still walking free and fully able to attack her again.
"I have come to my own conclusion, that if it means getting killed for my own justice so be it. I can't go on. I don't know who to turn to again for help," the woman, who is not being named to protect her identity, said.
The woman said she was hired to take care of an elderly person in the Port-of-Spain district and hired a "PH" driver to take her to and from work safe and sound. Initially, the driver did his job creditably. However, on November 8, 2014, when she was picked up by the driver and told that he had forgot something at his house in Morvant and needed to go collect it before taking her to Central.
"I saw it as no problem because after almost two months of dropping me I didn't think he was up to anything evil. I trusted him, especially the fact that he was calm and soft spoken at all times and seemed very nice to me," she said.That night when the man arrived at his home he asked her to come out for a minute. Reluctantly, she said she did after continued and aggravated persistence by the man.
"Just because of how the man was getting on with me, I was shocked. He threatened me and I had no choice but to go with him inside the house," she claimed."While inside the man made a move on me in a sexual manner and when I declined he began to beat me. He then raped me. When he was done he threatened me and warned me not to go to the police or else he will kill me.
"What am I to do now in a case like that? He dropped me home that night but I was so scared for my life."She said after that night she received numerous calls, texts and voicemails from the man, who on one hand threatened her but also said how much he was in love with her and wanted a relationship.
"It reached a point that I stopped taking his calls. He would then use all different numbers to call me and when I realised was him, I stopped answering. He then would call me from blocked numbers and when I again realised was him, I stopped answering all unknown calls," she said.One day the woman claimed she was lying in her bed at home when the man broke in.
Armed with what she called a Rambo-type knife, the woman said the man ordered her into his vehicle against her will and drove south with the knife placed at her waist. She said he drove to Point Fortin, passing the Point Fortin Police Station along the way. He eventually stopped on a lonely road."He parked the vehicle and told me to get out. He began fondling me and when I resisted he started to cuff me in the face. I tried to fight back," the woman said.
"I saw an approaching car and I pushed him and started to run towards the car screaming for help."The vehicle stopped and I called out to the driver to call the police. He then drove off when he saw my attacker running with a hammer in his hand."The woman was subsequently struck with the hammer by her attacker and ordered back into the car. The man, she said, eventually drove back to Morvant.
"When I entered (the house) I saw a woman lying on the floor as though she was either dead or in a deep sleep. I tried all I did to wake her up for help but she would not wake up," she recalled."The man kept hitting me with the hammer on my ankles, shoulders, legs, back and belly. He then raped me again despite the fact that I was covered in my own blood."
She broke down in tears for a few minutes at that point."He told me if I go to the police they would do nothing. He then sat down to smoke something and fell asleep. That was when I escaped," she said.The woman said she ran out onto the road, her clothes torn and blood-stained, and was eventually assisted by a passer-by who took her to the Morvant Police Station, which she said was a stone's throw away from where she was being held captive.
"It was about 3.30 am when I got to the station. I spoke to a police corporal and waited for their help for hours but the police there did nothing for me. He told me to go to Point Fortin and make a report," the woman said."I told them the man's name, the car he drives and an idea as to where he lived and still they did nothing. They did not even take me to the hospital," she added.
She said at about 10 am on November 9, 2014, she was taken by two visiting police officers to the station to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
No case
A case is yet to be brought before the courts and the woman's accusations, though detailed and recounted in evident distress, are yet to be verified. However, according to statistics released by the Crime and Analysis Problem Agency (CAPA), there were 159 rapes in 2014 and 202 in 2013.
The report states that 159 rapes reported included people being assaulted while commuting, during home invasions and by people known to themCAPA's statistics also showed an increase in sexual offences in 2014. There were 693 reports of general sexual offences in 2014 compared to 531 in 2013.
Police denials
Inspector Roger Alexander, who is currently assigned to the North Eastern Division, told the T&T Guardian yesterday that he is aware of the case involving the woman, but emphasised that he never turned her away when she came to him for help.He said he assisted her in every way that he could, including directing her to senior police officers at Morvant station and at the South Western Division. He added that he also called the suspect and encouraged him to surrender to the police, which he (the suspect) did.
Alexander, however, said he is not sure what happened after the man surrendered, including if he was charged or released pending further investigations. He reiterated that he did not ignore the woman's appeal for help and confirmed that investigations did commence when she made the report.Since the incident, the woman said she has been back and forth between the three police stations begging the police to make an arrest.
"Eventually they did arrest the man and took him to Point Fortin station, but he was released a few hours after. To this day that man is still out there somewhere and I am frightened for my life," she said. The woman also made several reports to the Police Complaints Authority over the failure by of police in the three stations to help her.
The woman alleged that she even went to an Inspector of Police and told him what had happened, but claimed he chased her away. The woman says she is now receiving professional counselling and is having sleepless nights. She is awaiting the results of an HIV test.She said she would take her case to acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and Minister of National Security Carl Alfonso.