A 10-year-old girl was raped, in December, by her stepfather’s cousin who is in his 20s, her mother said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
The woman told Hot FM’s “AM Mayhem” that she has since ended her relationship with her then-boyfriend and that his family — with whom she did not have a good relationship — has become especially hostile to her because she reported the matter to the police.
Further, the woman, who described herself as a “young mother” said that her daughter’s father has threatened to kill her (the woman) over the alleged attack on his daughter.
iWitness News has since learned that the woman was a teen mom, is now 29, and lives in a Central Kingstown community.
She told the radio station that her daughter told her one early morning in December of the sexual assault.
One “fore-day morning” during the Nine Mornings festival, the child went to her mother at home and told her she had something to say and asked the parent not to punish her because of it.
The 10-year-old girl then told her mother that the young man who also lives in the same house and is in his twenties “does be harassing me”.
The mother claimed in the radio interview that the child, when questioned further, told her that on the first occasion, the man did not penetrate her but did so on the second occasion
The woman told the radio station that her daughter, who turned 10 last July, likes to comb hair and do nails.
The child sometimes combs her stepfather’s cousin’s hair and used to do so in the living room, where they lived on the ground floor of a two-storey house.
“I saw it couple times [more than once] but I never think that that would really take place,” the mother said.
However, according to what the child reportedly told the police in her mother’s presence, on the day of the assault, the man told the child to come to a bedroom to comb his hair.
After she was finished combing his hair, the man held her by her hand, and pulled her back into the room, which has two beds.
The child was able to escape his grasp and she ran around on the beds in the room before the man caught her, threw her onto the bed and raped her.
“She said when she saw him coming on her she closed her eyes and that is where it took place.”
The woman said that there is a jukebox on which music is regularly played in the household and normally one cannot hear what is taking place in that room, because of the design of the house.
The woman said that when the child told her of the assault, she sought advice from her boyfriend, the child’s stepfather, who immediately said that the child was lying.
The woman told her daughter that she would take her to the doctor in the morning, but she was so bothered by the development that she got up and went to the hospital and told a nurse what had happened.
She said that the doctor at the hospital referred her to the Sexual Offences Unit at the Questelles Police Station.
The daughter recounted her experience to the police, who took her to the Buccament Bay Polyclinic for a medical examination.
“I was so scared, so frustrated,” the woman said.
The woman said that the police officer said that she (the mother) had to be present during the consultation.
“The doctor said, ‘Yes, she has been touched multiple times.’ When I heard that, it’s like I can’t even hear anymore what the doctor was saying or whatever.”
She said that multiple tests were conducted at the hospital and some were done at private facilities.
The woman said that when she got home from visiting with the doctor and the police, her boyfriend and his sister were on the upper floor of the two-storey house and told her that she did not have to put the matter in the hands of the police.
The mother further said her boyfriend’s sister went on to tell her that they could have taken the child to the doctor “and know what’s going on”.
“She is like, ‘We could have deal with this different,” the mother said.
“I turned to her and I said, ‘If this was to happen to you, what would you really do?’ She responded and said, ‘I would have asked questions.’
“I said, ‘Knowing you and this family, you would have never asked question’
“They said I am putting a stain on the house. That is what they told me,” the woman recalled.
The woman said she has since ended the relationship with her boyfriend, but he comes to visit their daughter.
“He ain’t giving me no good response. We don’t even talk about it. Every time I bring up the topic, he try and change the topic. The last time I talk to him, he said, ‘You know it’s not true. You know he wouldn’t do something — because the police would have done — As soon as I make the report he would have been locked up.’
“I said, you know police; they do what they have to do.”
“One time he would talk good, but no good responding,” the woman said, adding that before the incident, her boyfriend, which whom she has a biological child, had been a loving father to his stepdaughter.
Regarding her relationship with her boyfriend’s family, the woman said, “we all time at war since I’m living there”.
She said that one of her boyfriend’s sisters has described her daughter as “a dreadful liar”.
“It’s like all of them, even family members overseas, calling me and threatening me from Barbados and America.”
She said she has reported the threats to the police, adding that one of her relatives told her that she needs to stop saying what she is saying “because is fire I dealing with”.
The woman said that her child is not coping.
“It’s like — night-time she cannot sleep now that it is out… My daughter is not coping with this well,” the woman said, adding that she does not know how long the sexual assault had been going on.
“Since we leave the station, I am not pressing her to — I am trying to hold up with her, trying to show she love… I does talk in between… I am trying to hold up with her. That is what I am trying to do.”
The woman said she had noticed that her daughter had been moving “funny” before she told her of the assault.
She said she had taken the child to Campden Park clinic “with that situation”.
“But the doctor didn’t check her. The doctor said probably how she developing and — you know children them time,” the woman said.
The woman said that the biological father of the 10-year old has also threatened her (the mother’s) life.
“He wanted to take it into his (own) hand. He keep calling and cussing and threatful talk and this one I did take serious. I know my child father — when he tell me, ‘I will leave your head one way and you body one way if I don’t get justice for my daughter.”
She said she also reported this to the police who accepted the report.
The woman said that the child’s father had asked for a photo of her alleged rapist.
“I tell him leave it in police hand,” she said, adding that the child’s father said that if they left it in the hands of the police, the law enforcement officers would not do anything about it.
What an absolute tragedy.
Sakny vincent men is getting from bad to we worst in raping of young children
The man who raped that 10 year old child is a disgusting Paedophilic dirt box. He deserve whatever he get. Give the child’s father his photograph and leave it for him to deal with. Children need protection from such men.
Then the child’s father ends up where? How will he possibly protect her from future preys??
This has been happening in our country for hundreds of years, and because of responses like this, the victims have suffered silently. There must be some justice, and Mom your daughter is going to need counseling she’s going to need someone to talk to professionally. Pity the Doctor didn’t have the time.of day for her at your initial visit.
To much information in the public domain, she’s a child, and I’m sure quit traumatized; so why put all this information out there. The police might be moving slow, but leave it to the judicial system. My prayers and thoughts are with that child.
This much information is necessary if we are to address not only the offence at hand, but the response that parents and victims get from the ones who should be protecting them. Yes, we must keep the victims in mind when publicly discussing these matters, but the public needs to see the struggles people have when they come forward with these situations. People need to see how even when the parents come forth, the culprits’ families, too, are part of the coverup. We keep talking about the rape culture in our society that has been ongoing for countless amount of years, yet we’re afraid to be as relentless as the perpetrators were in their crimes, when addressing the issues. Instead of questioning the amount of information given by the victims, why not question the resources in place to help people through these ordeals? With proper evidence, how about we question the legalities behind publishing the people who threaten against people who are speaking out against such crimes? How about the quality of counseling available to the pre-teen and her mother? How about protection from the alleged criminal’s family?
Very sad !!
I concur with Cynthia, give the photo to the father.
You people should have been ashamed to publish this rubbish. tomorrow the headline is Commissioner says: “crime gone down” and Minister of some […] thing say: Children under 12 cannot be prosecuted. The cops in charge of SVG should be making arrests and getting to the bottom of this. But it has reached the media faster than the authorities. What a la la. This is what happens when a big cross-section of the population live in poverty. A lot of idle hands. When is big belly Gonsalves going to drop dead already so that somebody else who could lift people, out of poverty? So that they can see that they have a future in SVG. The cops in SVG are not doing a good job and those so-called child protection laws are not working to detour all the raping and busing of minor girls especially. Have you all gone […]ing crazy? Just killing and abusing each other.
Correction: When is the incompetent barefaced […], big belly Gonsalves going to drop dead already so that someone else who could make policies to help the 46% out of poverty take charge […].
I hope the mother can stay strong for her daughter. Her daughter not only suffered the rape she has now had to endure such horrible slander. The step-father family should have to suffer critism and people should rally to support the child.
Give the photo to the child’s father, let him deal with the bastard.
Sick sick sick.
What is wrong with them?
Go buy a prostitute.
This is so sad. Why are the police taking so long to do what needs to be done?
We need justice for this 10-year-old and her mother.
Mom you did the right thing by reporting the incident to the police, and keep reporting all other trades to its you and your family. What a brave and courageous little girl. Yes agreed that she needs professional help to deal with such trauma. This monster should be locked up right now. Dad I know you are mad and want Justice for your baby girl, the best way you can do that is to support mom and your daughter. What the hell is wrong with this family having the nerve to make threats to this woman. The police need to get on this right away and do their damn job. I am a proud vincentian Living in America right now, what has become off my beautiful little Island?
Just give me $5000 and i will solve this problem. No long talking
My mother always say she not getting into a relationship( no step daddy) until us picney reach man and woman…it may not seem fair but it was what happened at that time and what is happening now. Usually the same environment that need a sexual abuser also breed other type of abusers. I find it interesting that after the medical report she chose to communicate with the boyfriend. Almost like she needed his approval. I bet this boyfriend would have been somewhat abusive and played on her insecurities.
Another interesting behaviour is that the abuser did not think that his brother ( boyfriend) would beat the crap out of him when the abuse comes to light. Also look at the sister’s reaction. Their behaviour says a lot about their childhood and what goes on in thehouse.
Mom…get yourself some counselling so you can heal and help your daughter. I wish you nothing but the best.
My girlfriend liked to plait men’s head and I didn’t like it. She was an adult so I never made a fuss about it either. Sometimes when I saw how close the man’s head would be between her thighs I would just shake my head. I was thinking, what if he just turn his head around he would meet face to face with the cherry. Yes her cherry would be right to the back of his head. I believed he was smelling it sometimes. I feel sorry for the child. I wish you could grow up to set up your own saloon.