Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

Senior Superintendent Calvin Benjamin

Although it has been five years since she was abducted and raped by two men in a robot taxi, Patriciais still horrified and gets emotional each time another woman is raped.

"It is so bad that, up to Wednesday, I was coming from school, I saw this white Toyota Nissan car driving around, I ran from the bus stop, without realising that I ran past my gate," said the student of a tertiary institution.

According to police statistics, 655 women have been raped since January. This is an increase of 89 when compared with the corresponding period last year.

There have been a number of reported cases in the Corporate Area and St Catherine. For example, 14 years ago, the daughter of a prominent civil servant was raped on Anandale Avenue. The matter went to court and the accused walked free. Two years ago, another rape occurred on that avenue. This is the same avenue where the schoolbooks of 11-year-old Ananda Dean were found.

Ananda Dean was abducted and killed last month.

Assaulted in home

Less than a mile from Anandale Avenue, a 34-year-old woman was gang-raped and robbed at her home, on Red Hills Road.

"Just as I was about to pull the grille, I felt a gun stick in my side and a voice said, 'If you scream, me kill you'," the emotional victim disclosed to The Gleaner, yesterday.

Her mother was at home and her daughter was asleep on the bed. The three men searched the house, took what they wanted and, before leaving, took turns raping her.

"They threatened to kill my mother and my daughter," said the woman.

She is just one of a number of women who have been raped in Duhaney Park, Pembroke Hall and Red Hills Road.

"We are aware of the number of incidents in Duhaney Park. We implemented a system and two men have since been been held. They are to face an identification parade," said Deputy Superintendent Michael Hugh Phipps, crime officer for St Andrew South.

*Name changed

glenroy.sinclair@gleanerjm.com

Strategy: DNA testing

Senior Superintendent Calvin Benjamin stresses that the police are looking into all the rape cases in Duhaney Park, Red Hills Road and Pembroke Hall, using DNA, hoping to establish the modus operandi and determine whether these crimes are being committed by a particular group.