And Still I Rise

by Kenton Chance
2005/08/26

A Central Kingstown woman, who says three men sexually molested her daughter, wants “justice”. Even though the matter has been disposed of in the Court, the mother is still not satisfied.

“I will like them [the authorities] to jail them [the abusers of her child]. ‘Cause they done the child tha’ thing dey,” the 33-year-old mother of seven told THE VINCENTIAN during an interview last week Tuesday, August 16.

She was referring to a series of incidents in which she said a man and his son had anal sex with and otherwise sexually and physically abused her nine-year-old daughter. She said another man, associated with the others, had deep kissed her young daughter.

She said seeing the men jailed will give her a sense of satisfaction, causing her to feel “justice” has indeed been served.

The woman said the youngest of the men allegedly involved was charged with the crime and, since he is a minor, his father was ordered to pay the court $800.

The woman, who is pregnant with her eighth child, related her story to THE VINCENTIAN during an interview last week Tuesday.

She said she became worried about her daughter’s well-being last December after the Grade-three-student began to faint regularly and lost her appetite.

The woman said she asked her daughter what was wrong and the daughter said she wanted to be transferred to another school.

“When ah aint sen’ she school, nothin’ aint hap’nin’. When ah sen’ she school, she comin’ home beat up,” The woman told THE VINCENTIAN.

The woman said she subsequently found stool and blood in her daughter’s underwear and went to the
school to speak with her class teacher.

Discussion with her daughter’s class teacher and parents of other students at the school revealed that two men, one of whom pretended to be the child’s stepfather, picked her up after school and had had anal sex with the minor inside the school washroom.

She also found out that the men were her neighbours, with whom she had a good relationship. “We aint livin’ in no war thing,” the woman told THE VINCENTIAN.

This, according to her account, changed after the woman met the man’s son and her daughter naked in her house in February this year.

This incident was reported to the police and a case was filed, at the conclusion of which the young boy’s father was fined.

When THE VINCENTIAN asked the girl, if anyone had done anything out of the ordinary to her or had done her anything that made her uncomfortable, she initially said “No”.

She subsequently said that two men, whom she identified by name and whom she said she met during a visit to her father’s house, “raped” her in the bathroom at her school. She said that the man wanted her to remove her underwear and when she refused he told his son to get a stone and the man struck her in her head with it.

She could not remember how many times the men had sexually abused her. The girl also told THE VINCENTIAN that she did not want to go back to that primary school. Her mother is in the process of transferring her to another school.

When asked why she did not tell anyone about what had happened, the girl said the men had told that that they would have killed her and her mother if she had told anyone about what was happening.

The woman also had photocopies of two related handwritten letters addressed to “The Honourable President” [of the Family Court] and a medical certificate from a private medical centre here.

The medical certificate, dated March 11th, signed by a local doctor and referring to the child in question by name, age and address, stated:

“This young girl was seen by me on March 11th 2005 with a history of sexual abuse (as stated by the mother).
“Examination at the time revealed that the hymen was intact although entrance with a little finger was possible.”

The letters to the family court, dated August 2, 2005, sought to explain the incidents and to plead for “justice”.

When will these stories end ?