A 27-year-old Jamaican woman who alleges that she was brutally raped and sexually assaulted by two policemen, aided and abetted by a female officer — all of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) — has identified one of her alleged attackers, credible sources say.
The man was picked out of a police identification parade yesterday, almost a month to the date when the woman claimed the rape and assault took place.
Repeated efforts over two days to contact the investigating officer, Assistant Superintendent Curvan Harvey of the Royal Barbados Police, were unsuccessful.
The woman, a resident of Spanish Town in St Catherine, was arrested at the Grantley Adams International Airport on February 26 after a bag she was carrying was found to have approximately two kilogrammes of ganja hidden in a false compartment. She was taken to the Central Police Station in Bridgetown where she said that between February 26 and 27 she was raped by one policeman and sexually assaulted by another after a female police officer unlocked her cell and allowed the men in on separate occasions.
The woman, who is now serving a 15-month sentence for possession and trafficking of marijuana, had also alleged that the RBPF denied her right to a phone call, legal counsel and medical attention when she complained of the alleged rape.
The complaint comes after the exposure by the Observer last month of the alleged "finger-rape" of deported Jamaican, Shanique Myrie, by a Barbadian Immigration official.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade acknowledged that it knew of the latest incident but said it had not received a formal complaint from the woman.
The Mail on Sunday this week published the alleged rape ordeal of British actress Heather Heath, who said she was savagely attacked in her Barbados holiday home in April 2004. Heath, who made formal reports to the Barbados police complaints authority, said the police laughed at her when she reported the alleged rape and dragged their feet on the investigation, even after being given critical physical evidence and her alleged attacker's name by a local charity organisation.
She said she came forward with her story after reading in February about the brutal rape of two other Britons, Diane Davis, a 61-year-old grandmother of nine, and an unnamed woman. Heath, who said she is permanently scarred by the attack, said the RBPF failed to investigate properly or to warn other women about a serial rapist who was later held, charged and convicted.
"They appeared to be more concerned with the image of the police force and bad press than about issuing adequate warnings," Heath is quoted in the British newspaper as saying.
President of the Jamaican Association of Barbados, Peter Kerr, said Jamaicans living in the eastern Caribbean island were not pleased with the treatment handed down to their countrymen.
"Jamaicans here want to see results, they want to know how soon there will be a resolution. They are upset," Kerr said.
However, he admitted that some Jamaicans who visit the island get involved in nefarious activities and make things bad for other Jamaicans.
"We understand that Jamaicans would feel the sense that persons who are in the island and get involved in bad activities shed a bad light on us and maybe that is the reason why they treat us badly," he said.
