Person of interest arrested in probe of alleged rape of Westmoreland 91-year-old

Efforts are now being made by the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation to have a 91-year-old woman who is said to be the victim of rapes be relocated to the parish's infirmary for her safety. 

Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar Bertel Moore told The Gleaner that the poor relief department has been asked to investigate the matter with a view to engaging her family on the possibility of taking her to the state facility.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer told The Gleaner on Tuesday that a person of interest has been taken into custody as part of the investigation.

The police report that the elderly woman was alone at her two-bedroom board house in Hopewell, Darliston on Saturday, January 27 when she was awakened by strange sounds coming from her rear window.

A man reportedly entered her room, held her down, and then had sexual intercourse with her against her will.

According to the police, entry was gained to the house by removing several louvers from the window.

Following the alleged ordeal, the senior citizen called a neighbour who contacted the police, who then transported her to the hospital with a relative where she was medically examined.

“Him used me up for a good while,” the Westmoreland senior citizen told The Gleaner.

“The man kissed me on my two jaws. He took out my breast and attempted to suck them, but I told him that I don't want him to suck my breast, so he put them back into my brassiere and then he used me up,” the distraught woman recounted.

Further, she said she was not able to see his face because he took away her flashlight and hid it.

“I don't even know when he left my bed, but he was here having his way with me. But, I know that he came here about 10 o'clock [because] that's what he told me when I asked him the time,” she explained.

The incident has left community members peeved, especially given that the culprit has not been caught.

Berneita Williams, Corp Sergeant Major at the Hopewell Salvation Army Temple Church, says the church and the wider community are shocked by the incident.

She described the 91-year-old as a loving woman who was not deserving of this level of emotional and physical abuse.

“I don't know why they have to go and ease themselves on her all the time,” Williams said, who claimed that this is the third time in the last three years that the senior citizen has been assaulted.

“Everybody is grieved and upset as to why they keep doing that to her. The community is shocked; we are not pleased with it.

“….and if they had caught that person it would be his last time they would be doing something like that.”  

Meanwhile, child and family therapist at the Family and Parenting Centre, Dr Beverly Scott, says men with low self-esteem tend to gravitate to raping women and children as a sign of exerting power.

“One of the reasons people rape is to show their authority over somebody and because they don't have the kind of acceptable personality to approach decently those who they would like to have sex with so they prey on vulnerable people like children and the elderly,” Scott said in an interview The Gleaner.

She said these people are sexual perverts who prey on those deemed helpless. 

“A lot of these behaviours are learnt and it's hard to change a learnt behaviour,” said Scott when asked if counselling and therapy can change these individuals.

“It's difficult for anybody to influence them to change their behaviour. It's not easy for you to change a pervert's behaviour because it has become a part of his personality and his lifestyle,” she informed.

She added that it would take a few sessions of intense therapy and counselling to minimise their activities but not necessarily change their lifestyle.

- Albert Ferguson

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