35-year-old suspect charged with statutory rape
A 35-year-old mechanic driver identified as Pascal Nyema of the Diocese of Cape Palmas in Harper, Maryland County has been arrested by the Liberia National Police and charged with statutory rape coupled with bribery.
According to Police charge sheet, the suspect on December 26, 2016 convinced a 15-year-old girl of Lake Shepherd Community in Harper, who went to sell cool aid for her mother that he wanted to pay for the entire market value more than LRD1,500, but failed to do so and instead, took her in his friend room where he sexually abused her and kept her until the following day.
Upon the girl’s return to her parents’ house the next day with the cool aid, her mother, Madam Ruth Fuoaka immediately interrogated her but due to fear after the alleged perpetrator earlier told her that if she told anyone, she will die, she did not inform her mother.
However, after persuasive several methods, she subsequently opened up, telling her mother that she was taken in by Mr. Pascal Nyema who allegedly had sex with her.
The girl’s mother immediately took her to the Liberia National Police headquarters in Harper and she was later sent to the J.J. Dossen Memorial Hospital for checkup where medical report shows that she was sexually tempered with and that whitish discharge was seen in her private parts.
According to LNP Chief Superintendent David P. Walker, who carried on the arrest, when Mr. Nyema got tipoff that he was wanted by police for an alleged rape case, he immediately escaped to an unknown destination.
Following several months, he later came back and was eventually arrested on Thursday, 13 July detained, charge and sent to the Harper Magisterial court for statutory rape coupled with bribery.
The accused, who had attempted to bribe the circuit court, is presently behind bars at the Harper central prison, awaiting court trial.
According to Madam Fuoaka, she and her daughter have been stigmatized in the community and the girl has stopped going to school because friends are laughing at her, something she laments, is psychologically playing on her daughter. She is calling on the Government of Liberia to ensure justice in the case.
For his part, the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INHR) monitor in the county, Mr. S. Boniface Nyema, who condemned the alleged act, says his office will do everything possible to follow the case and make sure that justice is dispense accordingly.
Mr. Nyemah calls on parents in Maryland County not to compromise any case of sexual violence against girls and women, stressing that bringing alleged perpetrators to book will serve as deterrent to would-be violators. Editing by Jonathan Browne
