The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

COMMISSIONER of Police Paul Rolle spoke out against sex crimes yesterday, saying there should be “no more tolerance for the abuse that existed for years unchecked”.

The police chief added his opinion to the public discourse as recent incidents of assaults and domestic abuse have sparked outrage in the community and brought more attention to the issues.

Yesterday he tweeted that rape, marital rape, date rape, unlawful sex and incest “all speaks to the volume of this problem.”

“No more tolerance for the abuse that existed for years unchecked. Truth is, many of us are products of rape. We need change now! Rape is not statute barred,” he tweeted.

At the end of the tweet was a gif with a green parrot and the words “deal with it” in the animated image.

When contacted by The Tribune and asked if there was an increase in certain sexual offences, the Commissioner responded by WhatsApp saying: “I don’t have those figures. I am simply voicing my opinion on the public debate.

“The knee jerk reaction is like this is something new. Whether an increase or decrease is really not the issue. It has to be condemned otherwise it will continue unabated.”

In mid-October, police released statistics that revealed there had been an eight percent increase in rapes, with 40 rapes recorded from January 1 to September 30 compared with 37 during the same period in 2020.

Within the last few days, a chain of events has increased the spotlight on domestic abuse and sex crimes that have sparked widespread conversation.

There was the recent death of D’Onya Bella Walker, four, who police confirmed died as a result of blunt force trauma to the body which resulted in multiple fractures earlier this month.

Police said they received information from medical practitioners at Princess Margaret Hospital stating that a female child was brought into the facility unresponsive, she later succumbed to her injuries.

The girl’s mother was charged with one count each of exposing a child to grievous harm and cruelty to children. A 33-year-old man was also charged with a count of child cruelty and murder, after police accused him of intentionally and unlawfully causing Bella’s death on the day in question.

Police also recently arrested a man who was stabbed by his girlfriend because she suspected he was sexually abusing her 12-year-old daughter.

This week CCTV footage was released showing a woman, who was holding a young child, being dragged towards a car by a man she knows before she falls to the ground and is attacked in the street. Bystanders intervened to stop the assault, with one eventually removing the child from the woman’s arms. The man drove off in his car only to return a short time later to run the woman over with his speeding vehicle. She was also dragged a short distance by the car.

The man has been taken into custody. Police said the incident was a domestic dispute.

As for marital rape, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis was previously asked if this issue will be on his administration’s agenda.

He told The Nassau Guardian: “I have too many other things on my agenda to be thinking about.”

Yet, Mr Davis later stated he believed a national conversation is needed concerning the criminalisation of marital rape.

“Marital rape is wrong,” Mr Davis said in a tweet last week. “We remain one of the few countries where that is not recognised in the law. An effort to change the law should be part of a larger national conversation and consensus. I very much support having that national conversation.”