A home­less woman who was beat­en, im­pris­oned and raped for al­leged­ly steal­ing a cell­phone had to be hos­pi­talised fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent on Mon­day (Car­ni­val Mon­day).

Po­lice said the 29-year-old of no fixed place of abode re­port­ed to of­fi­cers that whilst at the George Street Plan­nings in Port-of-Spain on Feb­ru­ary 16, she was ac­cused of theft and whipped on her back by a man known as “The Boss.”

The vic­tim claimed she was lat­er locked in a room and pre­vent­ed from leav­ing.

Dur­ing this time, she re­port­ed that a friend of The Boss forced her to have sex­u­al in­ter­course twice.

The woman said she was al­lowed to leave on Feb­ru­ary 18, fol­low­ing which she sub­se­quent­ly fell ill and was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal via am­bu­lance.

Al­though she was treat­ed and ad­mit­ted to the hos­pi­tal, it was not un­til Fri­day that the woman re­vealed to med­ical per­son­nel what had hap­pened, fol­low­ing which the po­lice were con­tact­ed.

The vic­tim ad­mit­ted to be­ing a drug ad­dict and liv­ing on the streets for the past five years.

A state­ment was ob­tained by of­fi­cers, fol­low­ing which sev­er­al tests were or­dered. The vic­tim re­mains hos­pi­talised as she was said to be suf­fer­ing from a range of med­ical is­sues. - An­na-Lisa Paul