Mark Titus, Enterprise Reporter
Senior officers in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) have expressed surprise that a female police constable who was allegedly raped by her male counterpart has chosen to divulge her story through the media.
However, a number of female cops have pledged their support for the woman constable and are putting plans in place to secure help for her.
The responses follow an exclusive report in yesterday's Gleaner, detailing the account of the constable who said a colleague raped her while they were on duty.
"We will be giving her all the support she needs whether to accompany her to court or just to give a listening ear," Corporal Karen Rookwood of the Police First Aid Unit told The Gleaner.
Yesterday, the rape victim told The Gleaner that since the story broke, she has received numerous calls from colleagues who had been made aware of her case after the complaint was leaked at the station to which she was attached.
The woman said a statement was submitted on the matter and that she had obtained medical attention after the ordeal.
But the Head of the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN), Super-intendent Ionie Ramsay-Nelson, says efforts to confirm the allegation have been unsuccessful.
"The commissioner is fuming," she said, "DCP (Jevene) Bent and I are disturbed that if this incident is true, the officer did not use of the provisions made by the force.
"We have been calling all over the place trying to establish who this individual is, but unless someone has received the report and has not forwarded it, we are not aware of any such incident."
Ramsay grieved
However, Ramsay-Nelson who was the victim of an 'inappropriate approach' during the early days of a sterling police career said: "I am always grieved when I hear about women who have gone through these things and don't want to report it, because victimisation can only occur if you pretend as if you are doing them a favour by allowing inappropriate behaviour to go unattended.
"We need to put a price tag on ourselves, we have placed it in numerous force orders, and made many other efforts to tell our women 'don't tolerate this sort a thing', because gone are the days when people can tell you that for sexual favours they can do this and do that."
Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green, who heads the Major Investigation Task Force, is responsible for probing criminal acts of this nature. "As far as I am aware, there is no record of this," he said. But since the publication of the story, The Gleaner has received more information supporting the woman constable's claim.
Last night, general secretary of the Jamaica Police Federation, Corporal Hartley, said on radio that the organisation had been made aware of a case of sexual assault against a policewoman, but he said some of the details contained in The Gleaner report were not similar to the case with which he was familiar.
While commending the woman police for coming forward with her story, executive director of human-rights group Jamaican for Justice, Dr Carolyn Gomes, said the systemic issues in the JCF need to be addressed with some urgency.
Head of the chaplaincy unit, Dr Rev Vivian Panton, said that the victim did not have to suffer such pain on her own with the different kinds of support available in the JCF.
