Georgetown: More than 140 cases of rape have been reported for the year so far, which represents one case every two days. This startling information was obtained from and confirmed by the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
Police generally do not release statistics on rape in their periodic crime statistics update. For the year 2013, during the period of January to July, there were 179 cases of reported rapes.
A number of social groups have lamented the manner in which rape is generally handled by the Police, hence, some time back, the Guyana Human Rights Association in a study titled “Without Conviction: Sexual Violence Cases in The Guyana Justice Process” had revealed an average conviction rate of 1.4 per cent in rape cases compared to rape reports originally made to the Police.
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Giving the statistics, Nandlall said in 2011, 16 sexual offences cases were completed. There were three guilty pleas and three cases were nolle prosequi (unwilling to pursue) because the Virtual Complainant (VC) gave a statement expressing a desire not to proceed with prosecution. There were seven not guilty verdicts by the jury. However, in 2012, 10 sexual offences cases were completed.
In two cases, there was a formal verdict of not guilty because the VC did not attend court to testify; eight cases went to trial and in all eight cases the jury returned a not guilty verdict. For 2013, 12 sexual offences cases were completed, eight of which the VC went to court and indicated that they were not willing to proceed with the trials. Those cases had to be discontinued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Additionally, in one case, the VC could not be located, while three cases went to trial.
In one of the three cases, there was a unanimous not guilty verdict and in the remaining two cases, there were hung juries. “Therefore in 2012 and 2013 there was not a single conviction for sexual offences in a total of 22 cases,” Nandlall lamented.
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