By Lincoln G. Peters & Kruah Thompson
Liberia: A 32 – year old man identified as Prince Durbar has been accused of allegedly raping a 13-year old girl in Buzzy Quarters, a slum community in Monrovia leading to her death.
The accused, Prince Durbar allegedly raped the victim through both her virginal and anus. Health authorities at the state-run John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Sinkor, a suburb of Monrovia, said the level of abuse inflicted against the victim has resulted in her sad death.
The victim’s family says the incident occurred Tuesday, 11 January 2022 right after the just-ended National County Sports Meet Final between Nimba and Gbarpolu Counties.
The family says the alleged perpetrator is behind bars at the Monrovia Central Prison while police conduct an investigation which could lead to a court trial.
The victim’s family has narrated that the perpetrator is their neighbor.
The accused was said to be residing under the stairway of the apartment in which the victim and her parents lived.
The bereaved family has expressed shock over the incident, saying they never expected the suspect to do such a thing to their daughter because they took him as their own son.
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Speaking in an interview with this paper Monday, 24 January 2022, Mr. Amos Y. Heid, father of the deceased, disclosed that after the County Meet final, his daughter started complaining regularly about headache and stomach pain.
Mr. Heid said the family took it lightly, but after some days, his daughter’s body started reducing and she got sick.
He explained in tears that the victim’s mother got concerned about the situation because it had never happened to her before.
Heid said he and the victim’s mother pressured the victim to tell them what was going on with her, but the deceased refused to tell them what exactly had happened to her.
“The next morning, her mother then carried her to a clinic in Rally Town Market where the doctor at the clinic [said] there was no equipment to do the testing and they recommended a clinic in Clara Town on the Bushrod,” said Mr. Heid.
At the Clinic in Clara Town, Mr. Heid explained, health authorities told the victim’s family that their little daughter was sexually tampered with both in her virginal and anus by a big man.
“My daughter was again asked by the doctor, but she refused to disclose it to him also,’’ Heid continued.
But Mr. Heid said the deceased later confessed at home, accusing suspect Prince of allegedly raping her.
“The boy who lives in the zinc house down here, Prince, called me into his room to send me to buy something for him. When I went to him in the room for the money, he jumped on me and put his [penis] in front of me and in my butt,” Mr. Heid quotes his deceased daughter as saying.
He said when the victim’s mother asked who did the act, the victim repeated, “I say, Prince, Mama. The boy that can sell the nails on the road. He did this thing to me.’
The family said they went to the Women and Children Protection Section of the Liberia National Police to report the case, but they were instructed by the police to go to John F. Kennedy hospital for a test and bring the medical result to the police.
At JFK, Heid said health authorities indicated that the deceased’s internal organs were getting rotten and she needed to undergo major surgery to save her life.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of World Against Rape, Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence in Liberia, Lian Duke Willie, has threatened to stage a mass protest Tuesday on 25 January 2022 from Camp Johnson Road through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Willie said the protest is meant to show to the international community that rape cases in Liberia are on the increase and still remain a national emergency because there is no tougher punishment for alleged rapists.
