THE story of the rape and murder of young Leonard Archibald is one of unspeakable horror that calls for all to raise their voices against perpetrators of sexual abuse, regardless of their relation to the abusers.
Mere days after the body of the young boy was discovered on the banks of the Berbice River at Kortherbraadt, East Bank Berbice, the nation heard that the main suspect in the rape and murder is a relative of the victim.
This has been a noted pattern based on several reports carried by the Guyana Chronicle thus far this year. Notably, in the third week of July, there were three rape cases, two of which were allegedly carried out by close family members. The other involves a person well known to the victim.
The first was an uncle impregnating his 15-year-old niece, then a father allegedly raping his daughter age 13 and a man in his early 30s raping and attempting to strangle his friend’s mother, who according to reports, is a 75-year-old pensioner.
The vast majority of rapes are perpetrated by persons known to the victims and girls are not always the victims. The story of young Leonard is one of many examples. There are also cases that do not end in death, but are not reported due to the shame and stigma attached to rape. This silence could hardly be helpful to the victims, especially when the authorities have recorded some 424 cases of child sexual abuse for the first half of the year.
In fact, it is a problem which can grow into a monster as in the case of young Leonard, whose life was viciously snatched from him by persons with tendencies beastly in character and whose sick activities were known by villagers. Who knows, young Leonard would have been a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a teacher or a wealthy farmer, but he was not given a chance to live, largely because some members in his community chose to remain silent rather than alert the nation about the perpetrators.
According to reports, the sexual molestation started with a few boys and some went unreported; and those incidents that were reported fell through the proverbial floor until one resulted in death before a community finally wakes up. It is for this very reason that communities cannot be silent on rapists because anyone, be it a sister, mother, grandmother, friend or a brother can become a victim.
Head of Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) Ann Greene, could not put it over better when she said thusly: “They [communities] are our eyes and ears. You know something, you need to speak out. If you know something, speak up. You cannot sleep at night knowing that they walking around the place.”
But it is also important for the CC&PA to be more active in the field so that they too can have their antennas up and ears to the ground on what is happening in communities away from the City.
It would be reasonable to assume that if persons from Brothers Village, the village where the teen lived, had known a representative from the CC&PA, they would have reported the matter to the agency if they were afraid of reporting it to the police. Hopefully, the Leonard Archibald tragedy is a wake-up call for all to be vigilant and never to be silent on sexual predators lurking around in society looking for their next victims.
It is tragic that the death of young Leonard came to light at a time when the Ministry of Social Protection is observing Child Protection Week, but one hopes that the message of the rally slated for Wednesday (today) at Anna Regina which seeks to break the silence on child sexual abuse will catch on.