List of Previous Titles

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Rape most Foul !


Rape! Very Serious Business

A recent court case in my native Bermuda concerned a charge of rape that was thoroughly foul. A 22 year-old woman reported that about 8:45 pm one evening she stepped outside her apartment to get her mobile telephone from her car when she was suddenly set upon by two men from behind. They dragged her into her apartment where over 15 minutes they took turns violently raping her.

Her recall was excellent and she gave police a 19- page statement. Police were shocked that there were at large two men who could do such a thing, as though they were wild dogs. They considered this a most heinous crime, and seven officers were dedicated to the case, with support from The Serious Crimes Unit. They were concerned to try and arrest the two perpetrators before they struck again.

Dozens of young men were brought in and had to prove their whereabouts at the time of the crime. This is quite naturally a difficult thing to do. It is not a usual thing for people to keep a minute- by- minute diary of their everyday movements, with proof of where they were. There is also the possibility of unduly prying into one’s private affairs. A person’s activities may not have been illegal, but they may not have been morally correct either, and to have them exposed in this way might at the least be embarrassing.

The police worked strenuously for a full week and were convinced that they had found the two men. A police line-up was arranged and the woman was brought in to see if she could identify her attackers. And that’s when it all came unravelled. There had not been a rape. She had made the entire 19-page drama up, and in the process she has set back the criminal justice system by years.

Her circumstances were that she had a relationship with a young man, but her ex-boyfriend re-entered the picture and she had had rough sex with him. In the process he inflicted bruises and scars that she was unable to explain to her current lover, so she made up the story to cover her tracks.

She “knowingly and deliberately made a false report to police” that resulted in a waste of police man hours that diverted their attention from other serious business. The Court thought that she should pay for that, so they charged her $6,000 to reimburse the police, and they fined her $1,000 for her stupidity. She could also have been sent to prison for six months, which she may still have to do if the fines are not paid.

I’m living outside the country so perhaps the woman’s protection groups have spoken up and condemned her actions, but I cannot find any evidence of this. If they have not done so, then shame on them.

This story is important from a number of fronts, not the least being that when a woman cries rape, it should be only under the most serious and genuine of circumstances. To do otherwise only provides the defence in future cases reasonable doubt. Another reason for this is that I recall another such incident where a wife falsely cried rape, and that took up a lot of time and attention and put the community on edge. At that time I was one of the young men who was hassled to prove what I was doing at the time of the alleged incident, and I came very close to being put behind bars for something I had not done.


Interestingly, I gave a suggestion of what had probably really happened that turned out to be exactly the case. In that event the wife had an affair with a local lad during the Summer nights while her husband worked until 1am. Nearing the end of the tourist season the husband came home early and panicked the two lovers. He fled the house and she screamed rape. Meanwhile, I had attended a movie on my own and was on my way home. Her lover would have crossed my path, either just before me or directly after I had passed the area, thereby putting me squarely in the frame.

Had it not been for the fact that I had worked at that same hotel and knew the system, and therefore was able to surmise what had been happening the outcome might have been very different.

I do not support rape or rapists. In my mind they deserve the full prosecution of the law. Those who falsely claim they have been raped commit another form of the charge by belittling the system. They should at a minimum go to prison.

Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael