Schoolgirl  sex assault probe…Cop caught on tape negotiating settlement

The case of the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by the son of a prominent official has taken an even more sinister turn, with a female police constable being recorded suggesting that the victim collect a $900,000 settlement, and that the cop keep $200,000 for herself. In the recording, which is in the possession of Kaieteur News, the rank, who is stationed at Cove and John, also suggests that her ‘cut’ be increased to $300,000 if the settlement increases. Information reaching Kaieteur News indicates that this rank has been pushing the teen’s family to seek a financial settlement, rather than endure a lengthy court proceeding which may not end in their favour. The cell phone recording starts with the policewoman answering her phone and confirming her identity.

Policewoman: Hello

Female caller: Hi, good afternoon.

Cop: Good afternoon.

Caller: Corporal (name given)?

Cop: Hi.

Caller: Hi, this is (name of victim) cousin

Cop: who? Caller (name of victim cousin)

Cop: Hi hi hi

Caller: Here is what, we didn’t get back to you because we still discussing this matter

Cop: Well I don’t have a problem with that. I was trying to get onto the mother to talk to her about something, but she didn’t answer her phone. I don’t have a problem.

Caller: Can we come in on Monday?

Cop: If you come in Monday, it has to be after lunch.

Caller: After lunch you gun be in there? Cop: Yeah,  because I got to go to town Monday morning to deal with a matter and after that I have to go to Eve Leary so that gun be like after lunch.

Caller: Hear, nah, the settlement, how much they looking at ?

Cop:  Well the mom and I discuss it and she said $700,000.

Caller: $700,000?

Cop: Yeah, she said $700,000 when I talked to her.

Caller:  Seven?

Cop: Yea.

Caller:  And out of the seven, how much we gotta give you?

Cop: No, well listen, in all she getting seven and I gun get two($200,000); so in all, it gun be nine ($900,000).

Caller: Nine?

Cop: She said she wanted the seven, right, and I said I wanted two, so in all it would be nine and she gun get what she called for and I gone get my two.

Caller: And the boy family agree to pay this?

Cop: Yeah, they don’t have a problem

Caller:  And we can’t go a little higher?

Cop: How much higher you wanna go?

Caller:  Ammmm, maybe $1.2M.

Cop: Well, listen to me I don’t have a problem. I talked to the mother before, this thing is all about communication, right, it’s all about communication. If you want to make a decision I don’t have a problem, it’s not my life. I was trying to help out the situation. If she wanted that she could have come in and say what she want. All they (boy family) waiting on is for me to say yes this is what it is. I don’t have a problem with what they want. Caller:  But hear nah, if we call for this $1.2, how much more we gotta give u?

Cop:  If you call $1.2, all I gun get is the two ($200,000) and y’all could probably give me a one ($100,000) more; so in all it gun be three ($300,000)

Caller: Three?

Cop: Yeah, I don’t have a problem

Caller: well, hear is what, let me go discuss it with them and I gun call you back

Cop: Alright.

Kaieteur News was told that the teen and her mother had seen the suspect and his father at the Cove and John Police Station and that the suspect was briefly detained. Sources told Kaieteur News that he spent some three hours in the lockups, and while there, he was heard boasting to other prisoners that nothing would come out of the matter, and that he would not be detained for long. “He was saying no matter how much (money) they (the victim’s family) wants, they (his family) would give them,” a source said. The teen has told police that the 24-year-old man, who is the son of a prominent official, sexually assaulted her after luring her into his car under the pretext of taking her home. The incident allegedly occurred last Tuesday at a desolate spot on the East Coast of Demerara.

Kaieteur News understands that the teen has submitted a statement as well as a medical document to police. She reportedly also took photographs which show bite marks that were allegedly inflicted during the assault. This newspaper understands that the 24-year-old suspect has denied that he raped the teen and that the sex was consensual. The teen said that a mutual acquaintance introduced her to her alleged assailant in October, 2014. The acquaintance also reportedly gave the man her cell phone number. According to the teen, she had told the man that she was participating in a pageant and was seeking sponsors. “He said no problem…he would get me whatever I needed,” she said. She said that last Tuesday, the man contacted her while she was in school, and promised to pick her up that afternoon to discuss his sponsorship for the pageant.

They reportedly met after school at a Vlissengen Road establishment at around 17.00 hrs, and the man took her to Thomas Street in his tinted Mercedes “to pay his workers.” She claimed that when he returned, they headed to her East Coast Demerara home, and the young man began to indicate that he wanted them to have a relationship. “I said no, I have exams, I have to settle down’, and he said ‘I could give you whatever you want, even a car for US$6,000,’ and he said that his dad has two houses in Canada, and I keep saying no,” the teen said. She said that while directing him to her home, the man suddenly drove to a desolate road on the East Coast of Demerara where he parked. “I look at him and ask what he doing here and he start to pull at my clothes and bite me, and he said that is what he does to women who don’t want to give him sex.

I started to scream and he covered my mouth.” She said that the man then pulled down her underwear and sexually assaulted her. He then dropped her off a short distance from her home, while promising that he would get her everything she wanted for the pageant. According to the girl, on arriving home, she contacted the male relative who had introduced her to the individual who had assaulted her. According to the teen, she also confided in her mother.

Kaieteur News was told that the alleged victim and her mother visited the Beterverwagting Police Station the following day. She said that while at the station, the alleged assailant contacted her by phone. “He said that somebody send him a (phone) message saying that I rape a schoolgirl, and if you do that to me you will damage my character. “I ask him why he do it and he say he didn’t rape, he only bit me. He say that his father is a (ministerial) candidate and that he (the father) would disown me.” She also claimed that a rank at the station recorded the conversation on a cell phone. The teen and her mother reportedly visited the Cove and John Police Station the following day, and were subsequently sent to the Brickdam Police Station.

There, a police medical doctor examined her and she was also given a medical document to take to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. The teen alleged that another young woman subsequently contacted her by phone and claimed that she narrowly escaped a similar fate after the man lured her into his car under the pretext of wanting to chat with her. There are reports that the man was recently also accused of physically assaulting a former girlfriend and posting nude photos of the woman on the internet.