Sexual violence

The June 26, 2021 edition of this newspaper headlined “Child rapist requests CoA to reduce sentence” reports that “a convicted child rapist is back in court asking three Appeal Judges to reconsider his 25-year prison sentence.” According to the news item, “Earlier this year, Ivor Laud was found guilty by a jury on two counts of child rape… Between March 1 and 31, 2015, and August 1 and 31, 2017, in the county of Demerara, he engaged in sexual penetration of a girl when she was just eight and 10 years old respectively.”
However, during a recent visit to Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Human Services and Social Security Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud, contended that penalties for rapists were not harsh enough. She was at that time comforting the 98-year-old woman who had been recently raped and beaten in her home a few days prior.
The United Nations-designated day – June 19 – the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, highlights this scourge in societies that seemingly has entered international paradigms that also, on a global level, involves Trafficking of Persons across borders, especially in areas in conflict, where women and children are left alone, oftentimes in refugee camps, voiceless, helpless, and vulnerable.
The tragic anomaly encapsulated by a news item headlined “Trio accused of rape released on bail” exemplifies the absolute contempt the law has for victims of sexual abuse. The news item reveals that the three men, who were accused of rape, were granted bail.
Kevin Clarke, 30, was arrested after he reportedly sexually assaulted a female and was granted bail in the sum of $30,000. Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Ishri was arrested for indulging in sexual activity with a child under the age of 16 and was granted bail in the sum of $75,000. Tameshwar Persaud was arrested and charged for allegedly raping a child under the age of 16. He was placed on $150,000 bail. These men were let free, which left their alleged victims at mercy of reprisals and/or intimidation. On Wednesday, October 3, 2020 a Police Constable, accused of raping a young woman, was granted bail in the sum of $500,000.
Rapists and those committing incest on hapless, helpless victims, instead of being incarcerated at taxpayers’ expense and further overburdening the prisons, should be dealt with in a constringed way.
Many very young adolescent girls have been impregnated by family members.
Stamp it out! Too long have the innocents suffered – young girls whose reproductive systems have been destroyed, babies whose intestinal tracts have been damaged, women and children who have ineradicable psychological and emotional scars that make them dysfunctional for the rest of their lives.
These rapists are killers. They kill the infants that will never be born to the girls who can never have babies. They kill the children whom they have vested with chronic ailments of one kind or another and, worst of all, they kill the trust and the dreams of their victims.
Three females living alone – a mother and two young daughters –had their home invaded and their possessions stolen. But as if that were not enough, the perpetrator took the young girl away from her mother and raped her. Daughters are raped by fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers. Can one imagine the absolute helplessness of these victims, betrayed so callously by persons who are supposed to protect them instead?
Home invasions by robbers, who steal more than money and material possessions, take lives and destroy lives in the process.
For the perpetrators among Police ranks, who are supposed to be the bastions protecting the vulnerable against perpetrators, this crime is a betrayal so heinous that they should be dealt with to deter recurrence of these all-too regular occurrences.