I feel that finally the victims of rape in Guyana are on the road of receiving some amount of justice for the monstrous act  and psychological hurt that was meted out to them by their heartless aggressors, after reading that Justice Winston Patterson had sentenced a man to 50 years in prison for raping an underaged girl. I commend him for that landmark judgment and I hope that other judges would tread in his path to see justice prevail as these psychopaths are placed behind bars where they belong, and that the rest of society can feel a sense of relief.
For too long, our Guyanese society has made sex between a much older man and a younger female take the pattern of a norm. I hope that this judgment against Tyrone Mortley serves as a deterrent to all men and for them to acknowledge the fact of having either consented or unconsented sex with an underaged female can land them behind bars for the rest of their lives.
However, as I applaud the judicial aspect of this case, I would in the future like to see that the Government of Guyana, establish a department within the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to assist the victims of rape. What we have taken for granted over the years is the amount of psychological harm the victim suffers, both during and after the ordeal. These women are left scarred, traumatized and sometimes walk around with the feeling of guilt that being raped may have been their fault. Some carry the feelings of animosity towards their parents or guardians for not believing them in the earlier stages, before the act of rape was even carried out, as in the case of Mortley.
We need a department which will deal primarily with the counseling and treatment of these victims and their families. Over the years, dozens of organisations sprung up to deal with the victims of HIV/AIDS, but none for the victims of rape, they were left to deal with their psychological scars alone.
I would like to continue reading about the ill fate of these rapists as they make their final appearance in the judicial system and better yet about the treatment and counselling that the women would have received.