Like any child during summer vacation, Rayna*, Louise* and Candice* had been enjoying their time out of school—that is until August 5, when a play date wound up being one of the most horrifying experiences of a lifetime. Rosa* the mother of seven-year-old Louise hadn’t sent her daughter to summer school this year. Instead, her young daughter stayed with her grandmother in Maynard Hill when her mother went to work.
Quite often Louise and 10-year-old Rayna would go over to play at 11-year-old Candice’s house. Their families knew each other, and none could imagine anything out of the ordinary happening there. But on August 5, the three girls were reportedly lured out of the house by Candice’s uncle who also lived at the house. Rosa told the STAR on the day in question, according to a police statement her young daughter gave, Candice’s uncle asked the three girls whether they wanted ice cream. They said yes and he proceeded to give his niece money for the treat. Once she came back he took them to “pick mangoes,” and that’s when things took a turn for the worse.
Seven-year-old Louise’s mother didn’t want to go through the horrifying details past that point. The three girls were taken deep into the bushes where the alleged perpetrator reportedly raped them one by one.
“She’s my only daughter. My daughter lost her virginity at seven years old,” said an obviously distressed mother. “They play at their house all the time. I can’t find words to express how I feel about what happened.”
Rosa first heard about the incident through a friend who’d heard rumours. She decided to question her seven-year-old daughter, but had a tough time getting the story out. According to the girl’s mother, the infant school student seemed embarrassed to tell her mother about the ordeal.
The seven-year-old finally disclosed the chilling details, revealing that she and the two other girls had been sexually assaulted.
One of the victims is said to be the niece of the alleged sex offender. Sources close to the story said the perpetrator’s sister had been protecting him to the point that she had not initially reported the matter to the police. Upon hearing the news, Rosa went to his home to find out what transpired. She asked the man’s sister whether she’d heard anything about the incident.
“She told me she had not. Her daughter was right there!” Rosa said. “These things will scar the children for life. They’re still young. They will feel it when they grow up. It’s very hard, my daughter is just seven . . . ”
One of the girl’s family members openly used the alleged perpetrator’s name as she spoke about his close connection to her family on a televised news broadcast. The woman said her granddaughter had not been able to eat nor sleep as a result of the incident. She said the child’s mother had come to her crying telling her about the rape.
“I told her don’t say that, don’t say that, he’s always here,” she said on the HTS news broadcast. “I asked my husband who told me the same thing.”
This week family members turned to the press primarily because they were dissatisfied with what they called the “complacent attitude” of the police. The first time Rosa went to report the matter at the Marchand police station she said she was told by a female officer that they couldn’t do anything for her, that she should go to the Vulnerable Persons Unit the next day.
“How could I go home and sleep that night after what I heard?” she told the STAR. “If they went that night they would have gotten him right away, he was right there. The family was hiding him.”
Finally yesterday afternoon, after much back and forth with various police departments and media appearances, Rosa said the police were finally being more helpful. She and her daughter spent long hours at the station providing whatever information they could.
“The first time my daughter spoke about it she was crying,” she said, “I told her it’s not her fault and all I want her to say is the truth and she did. I’m going to seek counseling for her with the church. The police took us to the hospital on Sunday and they found evidence to prove she was raped.”
“Right now I’m waiting for them to charge him,” she continued. “She’s doing okay, but when she goes to bed at night she would just be laying there and you can see that her mind is far. Since this happened she wants to be around me all the time, she doesn’t want to be by herself.”
Women’s Rights advocate Flavia Cherry has since spoken out against sexual violence against children:
“We strongly condemn rape in our society,” Cherry remarked on the RCI news broadcast Friday afternoon. “I would like to remind pedophiles and potential perpetrators that children under the age of consent are incapable of sexual consent. This latest report of rape is a chilling reminder of the heinous crime of rape that has been inflicted on too many children in our society and the indifference that has enabled too many perpetrators to get away with this injustice. As sexual violence against children is so prevalent in our society, we would like to remind all St Lucians that it is a criminal offence to engage in any sexual activity with a minor.”
Police reports have since confirmed that one man, apprehended in Choiseul, is currently in police custody in relation to the incident.
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