Cursing her COVID bad luck - Virus outbreak pushes back court date for Jamaican who accused Barbados cops of rape
Published:Sunday | April 12, 2020 | 12:00 AMKaryl Walker - Sunday Gleaner Writer
The female Jamaican complainant who has made rape allegations against two Barbadian police officers is cursing her bad luck.
After waiting 10 years to finally get a trial date, everything has now been scuppered due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has brought the world to a halt. Among the many things affected are court cases in Barbados, one of which was the initial April 20 date that was set for the woman to have her day in court.
Due to the public health crisis the world is now facing, all cases in the lower and supreme courts in the eastern Caribbean island have been postponed indefinitely.
And the long wait for justice for both the complainant and the accused drags on.
“You ever see something like this? How me so salt? Look how long I have been forced to wait just to get a chance to tell the court the wicked acts they did to me, and now corona come and me don’t even know when me will be able to get my day in court,” the woman told The Sunday Gleaner.
According to reports, the woman was corralled at the Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados with marijuana concealed in a secret compartment of her luggage after taking a flight from the Norman Manley International Airport in Jamaica a decade ago. She was arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle contraband into the country.
While being held for processing at a police station, the woman claimed that she was sexually assaulted by two male police officers, one of whom forced her to perform oral sex on him after making her consume an alcoholic substance.
The men, she said, were let into her holding cell by a policewoman who had the responsibility of overseeing the lock-up.
She was handed a sentence for her crime but has been adamant that she was raped and is demanding justice from that country’s legal apparatus.
“I will not stop crying out for justice. I did, in fact, try to smuggle the herb, but that does not mean they should have raped me,” she said.
WILL GET HER DAY
After climbing over many legal mountains and howling loudly that the Barbadian justice system seemed to be scheming to keep her case out of the public domain, the woman and her attorney, Jaydene Thomas, were relieved that after 10 years a date had finally been set for the matter to appear before a magistrate in the Barbados High Court.
Another civil case has also been filed on the complainant’s behalf.
Two Barbadian cops, Jonathan Barrow and Melanie Denny, were, in 2011, charged with serious indecency and aiding and abetting, respectively, related to the woman’s accusations.
“Justice has been really delayed in this matter for both the complainant and the accused. No one can fault the justice system in this country at this time because the world is facing the devastating effects of the virus and we all have to take the necessary precautions. It is, however, unfortunate that this woman has been made to languish so long in order to face those who she complained abused her. However, we are hopeful that when all this is over, she will be afforded her day in court,” Thomas told The Sunday Gleaner.
A third cop, who the woman said can be identified by a piercing on his penis, cannot be found and is believed to have fled the island of Barbados.