Inspector Kendolph Bobb who leads the Family and Juvenile Unit at the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force with responsibility for rape and molestation cases, revealed that amended legislation is still awaiting Cabinet’s approval some 5 years after submission. Mr. Bobb said a sexual offenders registry was proposed among the amendments.
Inspector Bob, while speaking at the Sip N’ Paint event organized by Miss British Virgin Islands contestant #3 Jareena Penn to raise rape awareness said, that laws are antiquated and needs to be a bit more universal.
He was at the time responding to a question from 19-year old Penn, a survivor of sexual molestation whose platform for the Pageant is ‘UnMask-Her-Rape”.
“Our sexual offenders’ laws are antiquated, gender-biased and needs some serious amendments. In 2016 Gender Affairs coordinator, Mrs. Lorolie Connor, myself and some other stakeholders got together and put together a piece of document… all of that (sexual offenders registry) was in the bill.”
“With the definition of rape now, we are way behind. Our definition still remains that a man rapes a woman. But now most countries are universal because anyone can be raped whether male or female. So all of that we have put forward and we are still waiting to see the outcome of that,” Inspector Bob added.
Miss BVI prospect Jareena Penn was applauded for her bravery in sharing intimate details of three occasions where she was sexually molested.
In one instance she highlighted that a teacher noticed signs but failed to inquire or report the matter.
“I used to cut myself. It got to a point where I was cutting myself in class. And this is why we have to take a stance against rape culture because the teacher that saw me cutting myself didn’t say anything. For that entire week I was forced to wear an oversized Virgin Islands made jacket to school to cover my scars.”
Penn believes in order to stamp out this social ill, we need to be collectively responsible and speak out.
“This is one reason why I chose this platform because typically people see signs but they don’t speak up and ask questions. It’s not until someone kills themselves or a predator does, that we are willing to acknowledge that we did indeed see signs.”
Jareena, while noting that some of her perpetrators were relatively young reiterated the need for parents and guardians to monitor what their children are exposed to. She said a lot of these actions are learned behavior.
Inspector Bobb expressed agreement adding “what we have been seeing over the years and mostly recently is that children are viewing online pornography. They are watching children pornography, some of which are very violent. I am urging parents to monitor what their children are doing on the internet.”
IF THERE WAS A WOMAN SITTING IN CABINET, COMPASSIONATE CONSIDERATION WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN GIVEN
Also speaking at the forum was former Director of the BVI Tourist Board Sharon Flax-Brutus who expressed disappointment of the recent reveal that Cabinet offered “compassionate consideration” of belongership status to a convicted rapist.
“I have to say when I watched the inquiry that tears came to my eyes in terms of the fact that consideration was being given to something like that and consideration is not given to things that hold more weight and water. What happens in that instance I believe, even though names weren’t called, whoever that young lady is and wherever she is, she became a victim once again. For women and for us to sit there and watch that, it was very disturbing.”
“I said it before and I’ll say it now publicly; if there was a woman sitting in Cabinet I don’t think that it would have been brought up for consideration. And if it came up for consideration and any of our three women were sitting in Cabinet and said nothing, shame on all three of them! And to quote the four agreements, it’s not personal. I think it is generalized for women. We must take back our own power or we are going to continue to be subjugated and we’re going to continue to be raped over and over again. Not just physically but mentally as well,” added Flax-Brutus.
While consideration was given to the case, the Attorney General later said that status was not granted.
THE COMMUNITY FAILED ME SAYS MRS. CURVE’ GLOBE.
Another panelist Mrs. Curve’ Globe Sophia Rubaine recounted a personal experience where she was inappropriately fondled by a doctor during a medical examination. However, her attempts to seek restitution fell upon deaf ears.
“The law enforcement at the time, the Attorney General and a lot of people failed me. Because I was only 17-years old, they figured there was no way this could have possibly happened. I was in an official’s office and she mentioned “are you sure?”. I went as far as gender affairs, I called in on NDP Radio and I told everyone I could but nothing ever happened. And even as I sit here that person is still practicing medicine.
“We are failing our children and everybody has a role to play, parents especially,” said Ms. Rubaine who is also the official ambassador for WIN, a foundation that provides reformation services for abused women and women in need.
Inspector Bob noted that there has been an increase in molestation cases reported since the advent of covid-19 and urged the community to strongly advocate against the act.
The evening’s proceedings culminated with a candle light tribute to Miya Marcano, whose life was tragically taken by the maintenance guy at her apartment complex.
The discussion moderated by Jovan Wilson can be viewed in full by clicking this link.