Sex predator Kajus Scuka allowed into UK to carry out knifepoint rape and string of attacks
- Kajus Scuka, 48, jailed for life today with a minimum term of 12 years
- Rapist slipped into Britain undetected and signed on for benefits
- He stabbed wife three times in row over his infidelity and was jailed for life in 1988
- Also convicted of gross indecency, indecent assault and attacking a woman with an axe in his homeland
By Rob Cooper
Last updated at 6:40 PM on 27th January 2012
A dangerous sexual predator from the Czech Republic who murdered his wife at home came to the UK and carried out a knifepoint rape and three serious sex attacks on women, a court heard.
Kajus Scuka, 48, raped a woman on her 54th birthday as she walked her dog in a park and groped his other victims and offered them cash for sex.
The convicted killer was claiming £67-per-week in benefits after coming to the country in 2009.
A judge today expressed dismay that despite his serious convictions and lengthy sentence, Scuka was ‘free to enjoy the same freedom of movement as any other European citizen.’
Jailed: Kajus Scuka, 48, who had served 11-and-a-half years of a 13 year sentence in his homeland
He was allowed into the country despite serving 11-and-a-half years of a 13 year sentence for murdering his wife.
He had been jailed in 1988 for stabbing her three times in his homeland when they argued over his infidelity.
Scuka also has convictions in the Czech Republic for gross indecency, indecent assault and assaulting a woman with an axe for which he was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Although he was already a convicted killer, as he was not deemed high profile enough he is likely to have slipped into the country unnoticed because border officials would not have known of his criminal past.
Judge Peter Kelson told the defendant: ‘It seems to me that even with your convictions for murder and assaults you were free to enjoy the same freedom of movement as any other European citizen’
Any EU citizen is entitled to come into the country unless border officials can show that the individual represents a danger under free movement of labour laws.
The system is reliant on criminal records databases being shared – and a conviction alone is not enough to keep someone out.
The Sheffield attacks all happened within a two-mile radius of the city’s giant Meadowhall Shopping Centre between March 2010 and May 2011 and – police did not even know the killer was in the country.
Jailing Scuka for life with a minimum term of 12 years at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Peter Kelson told him: ‘I regard you as a very, very dangerous man.’
He said he was ‘unwilling to control his sexual urges and was a grave danger to women’ and he would be recommending Scuka for deportation after he has served his sentence.
The judge said: ‘If there is ever such a day you are released in this country you should be deported. I have no doubt that the public will be terribly alarmed.
‘It seems to me that even with your convictions for murder and assaults you were free to enjoy the same freedom of movement as any other European citizen.’
After the hearing, Detective Sergeant Ian Harding said it was worrying that Scuka could slip into Britain under the radar.
‘It is a concern that people of this nature move freely about the EU without any restriction,’ he said.
‘This man has been living in Sheffield since 2009 and we were not even aware of his presence.’
Scuka first struck in March, 2010 as a 51-year-old grandmother walked her two-year-old granddaughter home in a pram at Sheffield Lane Top.
WHY ARE WE NOT WARNED ABOUT EU CRIMINALS?
Britain’s ‘open borders’ agreement with the European Union means millions of people with criminal records can get into the country unchecked.
Any citizen of an EU country, including the 8 countries of Eastern Europe, can get into the UK without a visa, just as Britons can travel freely around the continent.
When EU nationals arrive at the border, their passport details are checked against a ‘watch list’ of serious criminals and terror suspects compiled by the UK Border Agency.
But the database contains giant holes – as the British authorities are reliant on other countries to share their criminal records.
Unless an offender is high profile, is known to have committed crimes in several countries, or is on the Interpol wanted list – the system is unlikely to be aware of their previous convictions.
And even if a new arrival does have a conviction – or indeed several – and the authorities are aware of them, they cannot automatically be refused entry.
European free movement rules mean they can be barred to ‘maintain public security’ but convictions in themselves do not necessarily mean they will be turned away.
Even more worrying is that many foreign nationals do not undergo rigorous background checks even after they have been arrested.
Each year around 30,000 pass through the criminal justice system without police exploring the full extent of their criminal pasts.
By comparison, criminals from outside the EU who want to come to Britain must obtain a visa before entering – and are required to declare any previous convictions.
He approached the woman from behind and put his hand between her legs while making ‘sexual grunting noises’, said prosecutor Mike Smith.
His victim turned round and swore at Scuka who fled.
The second attack happened on April 14 when a 23-year-old was approached by Scuka who pretended to be jogging as she walked alongside the River Don.
His victim said he appeared to be wanting directions but he then grabbed her and tried to push her into nearby undergrowth and said: ‘I give you 30 quid.’
The woman, who escaped, told the court: ‘At first I thought he was going to mug me but then I realised he wasn’t after money.’
Two hours later Scuka raped his third victim as she walked her dog on playing fields after work just a mile away at Wincobank.
The victim told the court a man speaking broken English asked her for directions then knocked her into a ditch.
He slapped her hard on her thighs before taking out a penknife and raping her.
She said: ‘He tried to kiss me. He kept slapping me. At one point I was thinking I didn’t want to die in this ditch, I didn’t want to die with my clothes off and be found by children.’
The final attack was on May 17, 2011 when a student in her 20s was walking through a park in Firth Park.
Scuka grabbed her from behind and said ‘let’s have sex’ but she managed to break free and escape as he tried to rip off her coat.
He was arrested minutes later at his home half a mile away.
Scuka’s DNA was found on the rape victim while fibres from a hooded top he wore for the last attack were found on his victim’s coat.
Scuka, who spoke through an interpreter in court, was convicted by a jury of one offence of rape and three offences of sexual assault.
He told the court he lost his footing as he spoke to the rape victim and they both fell to the ground on a public footpath.
Scuka claimed the woman touched him sexually first and he found her attractive but did nothing against her will.
Police believed he returned home for brief periods by bus during his time in Sheffield. Det Sgt Harding said: ‘He claimed he came here looking for work but he hasn’t done any and just signed on.’
Categories: News Tags: Allowed, attacks, Carry, into, Kajus, knifepoint, predator, rape, Scuka, string
He’s a teenager at 42, says the sister of rape case aristocrat accused of attacking schoolgirl as she slept
By Neil Sears
Last updated at 4:14 AM on 13th January 2012
Support: Murray’s sister, Lady Georgina Bullough, gave evidence to the court yesterday, where she described her brother as ‘kind’ but ‘naïve’
The aristocrat on trial for raping a schoolgirl yesterday received support from his titled sister who took to the stand in his defence.
Lady Georgina Bullough praised the character of the Honourable James Murray, 42, over allegations he spiked a 16-year-old truant’s Ribena drink before assaulting her in her sleep.
The 44-year-old said her younger brother was a ‘kind’ but ‘naïve’ man whose emotional intelligence was ‘somewhere around the teenage mark’. His tendency to only see the good in people had often led to him being taken advantage of, she added.
Murray denies the rape charge, insisting he and the girl had been in a consensual sexual relationship since she reached the age of consent, although he admitted he had ‘deep feelings of unease’.
The court also heard him speak in his own defence for the first time. He denied he had ‘groomed’ the alleged victim – a troubled foster child – from when she was 15.
Instead, the Old Etonian son of the Earl and Countess of Mansfield told the jury: ‘I feel she was grooming me.’
Murray’s brother Viscount Stormont, 55, the heir to their father’s £60million fortune, has been at Oxford Crown Court throughout his trial. But the only witness called to speak on his behalf was Lady Georgina.
Giving her name to the court as Georgina Dorothea Mary Bullough – stressing that her surname was pronounced ‘Bullow’ – she said she knew nothing about the alleged rape incident, but was there to talk about her brother’s character.
Lady Georgina, of Logiealmond near Perth in Scotland, said: ‘For the last year, since this court case started, James has been living with my husband and I. I’m very fond of James, I know him well and like most people that know him well I’m quite protective of him.
‘He’s very kind and generous with his time and his possessions, and as a result he’s socially popular.
Accused: James Murray, right, arrives at court with his brother Viscount Stormont. Murray took to the stand in his defence for the first time yesterday
Copy of a letter written by James Murray to the parents of his alleged victim. The letter was produced as evidence at Oxford Crown Court
‘But he is naïve – he always thinks the best of people. He would not possibly see trouble coming that other people would spot very quickly. He’s easily taken advantage of.’
As an example, she told the court of a time when he was a student at Oxford Brookes University, when he lent his car to a friend for a day and ‘didn’t have the assertiveness’ to ask for it back even a week later.
‘Intellectually he’s very clever,’ Lady Georgina said. ‘He understands all about technology and computers and science. But emotionally, I would say his intelligence is not good… somewhere around the teenage mark.’
Earlier, Murray said he became close to his alleged victim after she took him for a walk to show him hedgehogs.
Underage sex with her would have been wrong he said, but he began sleeping with her days after she turned 16 because he felt she expected it – adding that on the night of the alleged rape he joined her in the spare room at his flat in Oxford when she asked him to read her a bedtime story.
The case continues.
Categories: News Tags: accused, aristocrat, attacking, Case, he's, rape, says, schoolgirl, sister, slept, teenager
H&M forced to defend Girl With The Dragon Tattoo fashion line after rape victim accuses chain of glamorising sex attacks
By Daisy Dumas
Last updated at 2:30 AM on 15th December 2011
H&M’s new Girl with a Dragon Tattoo collection, which hits the major retailer’s stores today, has been accused of glamorising rape.
In an open letter to the retail giant on her blog, rape victim Natalie Karneef said that she recognises the type of clothes in the new fashion line because they give the message to men to ‘stay the f*** away’ – but that they also put a ‘chic, consumerist finish’ on sexual violence.
The collection’s place in glamorous fashion circles was secured by its worldwide début at trendy Paris boutique, Collette, last month. But while the designs may be associated with rape – an important part of the movie’s plot – the chain says the clothes are simply all about a ‘strong woman who stands up for her ideal.’
Stockholm syndrome: H&M’s Dragon Tattoo clothing line is full of dark colours and edgy street fashion, but it has been accused of glamorising rape
Designed by Trish Summerville, who was in charge of the new film’s costumes, the clothes take a direct lead from the films’ heroine, Lisbeth Salander.
Packed with black, dark browns and greys, the line’s hooded tops, skinny coated jeans, chunky black boots, U.S. flag T-shirts and leather jackets are all a nod to Lisbeth’s dark side and the gritty self-preservation that is attributed to her being raped by a guardian as a teen.
The story, set in snowy Sweden, hinges upon the loner protagonist’s edgy strength and survival and her outer image – including no-nonsense wardrobe, spiky black haircut, piercings and, of course, that tattoo – is very much part of her persona.
Writing in the Montreal Gazette, Ms Karneef says: ‘What message is H&M sending to the world? “Look at the trendy rape survivor? Look how strong she is, that she can get through all that hell and still wear cool leather jackets?”‘
Victim: Lisbeth Salander, played by Rooney Mara, is ‘severely emotionally scarred’ rather than being a strong, independent woman, says rape victim Natalie Karneef
The namesake book’s late best-selling author, Stieg Larsson, was inspired to write the shocking, raw trilogy after witnessing a gang rape aged just 15.
Ms Karneef points out that while Division Designer at H&M, Anna Norling, says she is ‘proud’ of the line because Lisbeth is the ‘very essence of an independent woman,’ the film’s star, played by Rooney Mara, is in fact ‘severely emotionally scarred’ after years of abuse and violence.
The line is irresponsible, says Ms Karneef: ‘Sexual violence is an epidemic. Putting a chic, consumerist finish on it glosses over the lives it destroys and the spirits it breaks.’
Stars: Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara at the film’s Swedish première last night
‘If H&M really believed in promoting the essence of independent women, it would donate to organizations that promote prevention and help the survivors of gender-based violence, not create a fashion line to glamorize it.’
The original open letter found its way to Fashionista.com, sparking a debate about the real roots of Lisbeth’s ‘armor.’
In response, the corporation released a statement to Fashionista denying any intent to offend.
Accompanying the apology, H&M says that ‘though we think Lisbeth is a strong woman who stands up for her ideal, we are not trying to represent her specifically. Our goal is to rather offer a collection that we see in today’s trend picture that will appeal to many customers.
‘We do not view this collection as provocative – it contains pieces that are staples in many people’s wardrobes: jeans, biker jackets and t-shirts. It’s all about how you wear them. We encourage our customers to find their own personal way to wear our products.’
One reader on the fashion site, Danielle Raymond Neff, says that the ‘armor’ was not simply down to rape, but was ‘response to childhood trauma (witnessing and later protecting her mother from the abuse of her father [and] being kept in an asylum by the Swedish government.’
Categories: News Tags: 'victim', accuses, after, attacks, Chain, defend, Dragon, Fashion, forced, girl, glamorising, Line, rape, Tattoo
Mundil Mahil ‘enlisted gangsters to set fire to ex Gagandip Singh’ over rape claim
- Gagandip Singh, 21, beaten, put in a car, driven to London and set on fire
- Student Mundill Mahil, 20, ‘got two men to take revenge’
By Rob Cooper
Last updated at 11:16 PM on 6th December 2011
Accused: Mundill Mahil is accused of luring her ex-boyfriend to her flat in Brighton where she was attacked. She denies murder
Two ‘gangsters’ set fire to a TV executive after locking him in the boot of his car on the orders of his ex-girlfriend, the Old Bailey heard today.
Medical student Mundill Mahil, 20, enlisted the men to take revenge on Gagandip Singh, 21, after he attempted to rape her, it was claimed.
She lured him back to her basement room in Brighton, East Sussex, before Harinder Shoker, also known as Ravi, and Darren Peters, both 20, beat him unconscious, it is alleged.
The victim was then allegedly bundled into the boot of his Mercedes and driven back to London before the vehicle was set ablaze with him still inside.
Mr Singh’s body was found in Blackheath, south east London, in the early hours of February 26 this year.
A post-mortem revealed he had suffered severe head injuries.
Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC said Mr Singh and Mahil were both members of the Sikh community and had begun a relationship in 2009.
‘Gagandip Singh was plainly, on the evidence, besotted with her,’ he told jurors.
He wooed her with gifts, while she provided him with emotional support – particularly when his father was murdered on a visit to India in September 2009 – and would spend hours chatting with him on the phone and internet, the court heard.
Gagandip’s father’s packaging business had been turning over more than £2million year when money started going missing from the firm.
His accountant was based in India and the father went to investigate but was murdered there. His son took over the firm and also started the Sikh TV channel on Sky.
However Gagandip’s relationship with his girlfriend Mahil broke down in August 2010 after Mr Singh ‘attempted to rape’ her in her student house.
A housemate, Becky Edwards, described Mahil as an ‘agony aunt’ and said: ‘During our first year she talked to him about very intimate, personal things.
‘He was a millionaire who offered her lots of gifts which she refused. After his father died they became closer and he was dependent on her.’
But Mr Jafferjee said the attempted rape changed everything.
He said: ‘It is common ground that he tried to have sex with her by getting into her bed.
Murdered: Gagandip Singh, 21, was in a car that was set on fire
‘Both were to describe it as an attempted rape – although in fact her description of events, even to her friends, suggest it did not get as far as that.
‘She forced him away, he broke down in tears and he left.’
Mahil became increasingly upset and angry, and spurned Mr Singh’s attempts to strike up further contact with her, jurors were told.
She became so resentful that after the attempted rape she referred to him only as s***face,’ the court heard.
‘That she disliked him intensely there can be little doubt,’ the barrister said.
‘She can be extremely manipulative. She knew that he was completely besotted by her and would jump at the chance of contact with her.’
At the same time, she also began a relationship with Shoker, who Mr Jafferjee told jurors was also ‘besotted’ with her.
‘She told her housemates about how on occasions certain of her male friends, which she referred to as gangster friends, wished to exact revenge and retribution on him (Mr Singh) but that she would discourage it,’ he added.
‘Unfortunately by February this year, far from discouraging anyone from harming him, she lured him to Brighton, suggesting a meeting at the same house at 11pm.’ The victim was both ‘excited’ and ‘wary’, he said, adding: ‘He asked her whether she was sure this was such a good idea.’
Mr Jafferjee added: ‘On February 25 he drove down in his sister’s Mercedes.
‘But laying in wait for him in the basement of the house, where her bedroom was, were Ravi and Darren Peters.
‘He had no idea what lay in store for him. He was attacked and beaten unconscious.
‘He was then wrapped up in Mahil’s duvet and carried by Ravi and Peters and dumped in the boot of the Mercedes he had arrived in.’
After the car had been driven to Blackheath it was set on fire with Mr Singh still in the boot.
Tributes: Flowers next to the charred tree where the dead body of Gagindip Singh was found in the boot of a burnt out car
‘Petrol was poured onto the car, including onto him as he lay either still unconscious or on any view completely helpless inside the boot,’ said Mr Jafferjee.
‘It is scientifically clear beyond any doubt that he was still alive at that point.
‘The car was then set alight with him in the boot and that is how his life was ended.’
The prosecutor added that Mahil was key to the killing and initiated it.
‘Her role was central. If she had agreed to lure him to Brighton that fateful evening the deceased would have been safe and alive today,’ Mr Jafferjee said.
‘No-one else had the ability to get the deceased to a place where he was completely vulnerable.’
Her new boyfriend, Shoker, ‘almost certainly had his own agenda and it was not of the righteous crusader protecting a young woman’s virtue,’ the barrister added.
‘He being besotted with her was more than happy to get rid of Gagandip.’
Peters was hired to help deal with the victim who was one grade below black belt at Taekwondo, the court heard.
‘Mahil was the person who lured the victim into the trap that had been laid,’ Mr Jafferjee said.
‘Peters and Ravi were the hired muscle who would draw this plan to its awful conclusion.’
Housemate Live Thorsen said on the night of the killing she saw sobbing Mahil coming up from the basement.
‘She was shaking with tears in her eyes. She was very traumatised. She said “He’s been here.” She said she had a flashback (to the attempted rape) on seeing his face.
‘I could hear noise coming from down the stairs. It was very loud like someone was trying to tear the house down. It was a loud fight.’
Mahil told her she had asked Mr Singh to come to the house and he had turned up with a teddy bear for her.
‘She said that she was told to get him into the house and get him downstairs and then open the door to her room and then run upstairs.
‘She described how once she had opened the door they had leapt straight on him and she remained on the stairs unable to move.
‘The deceased had been screaming her name asking for help, but she couldn’t bring herself to help.’
Later Mahil told her the two men were taking the victim to the car, the court heard.
Shoker, from Charlton, London, Peters, from Kidbrooke, London, and Mahil, from Chatham, Kent, all deny murder.
The trial continues.
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Categories: News Tags: 'enlisted, claim, Fire, Gagandip, gangsters, Mahil, Mundil, over, rape, Singh'
Barbados rape victim British grandmother Diane Davies tells brave story
By Angela Levin
Last updated at 9:34 AM on 27th November 2011
Sitting in her immaculate three-bedroom bungalow on Anglesey, Diane Davies thinks every day of her holiday in Barbados last winter. But she wishes she could forget it.
For this 62-year-old grandmother of nine, holiday memories don’t mean happy images of a paradise island with palm trees, white sand and warm seas.
Instead, she relives over and over the brutal rape she suffered in broad daylight in one of the island’s most exclusive areas.
Bruised and swollen: Diane Davies the day after her attack
Her anguish over this horrific attack is compounded by her treatment by the local police and victim-support personnel, which, at best, could be characterised as breathtakingly incompetent and, at worst, as callously indifferent.
Indeed, Diane, a widow, believes that the island’s authorities are more concerned about protecting the lucrative tourist industry than they are about seeking justice. It is for this reason, one year on, she has decided to break her silence and talk about her ordeal.
‘Initially I was utterly devastated and humiliated by what happened to me,’ she says. ‘But with the passing of time, I am now just very angry.
‘The Barbados police are totally inept at dealing with this sort of crime in both practical and pastoral ways.
‘Despite the fact that there had been a rape two days earlier in the exact location where I was attacked, there were no officers about or any warnings. I believe they try to brush the rapes under the carpet so as not to damage the overseas tourist market, which includes 250,000 British holidaymakers a year.
‘It works because many women feel too ashamed to talk about what happened to them. But I want to speak out because people should be aware of the dangers.
‘The truth is that if a woman is raped in Barbados, she is unlikely to get the support she needs. There are almost no procedures in place and the police are way behind in how they tackle crime. I am also very disappointed with the British High Commission, which has done almost nothing to help me.
Ordeal: Diane was grabbed as she walked to this beach in Barbados
‘The police claimed they had arrested the man in May but, for reasons they refuse to reveal, they won’t let me identify him. So how does anyone know it is him? Instead he has been taken to court once a month ever since and the case is then adjourned. I believe it is just for show.’
Diane, originally from Manchester, has lived on Anglesey for 11 years. Her husband, Trevor, a pensions manager, died from pancreatic cancer in 2005 after 24 years of marriage. A year later she moved into her bungalow.
Two years ago, as her 60th birthday approached, Diane, a primary school teacher, decided to treat herself to a holiday. ‘I decided on Barbados not least because everything I read said how safe it was,’ she says. ‘I didn’t mind going on my own – I have always been independent. I rented a flat in a condominium for two weeks. It was very luxurious with the biggest swimming pool on site in Barbados.
‘It was in the Holetown district, near where the rich and famous, including Simon Cowell and Tony Blair, come to stay and close to the Sandy Lane Hotel. I made friends with couples at the condominium and enjoyed myself so much I decided to go back again last year and flew out on October 17.
‘I used to get up at 6am, go for a jog and then come back and swim in the pool. After lunch I’d walk to the beach, which was ten minutes away, and swim in the sea. I’d then usually meet a couple from Jersey for a drink on the beach and then walk back with them so I was home before 7pm. I stayed in every evening because that was the sensible thing to do.
‘On Monday, October 25, I was walking to the beach as usual at about 2pm in bright sunshine. I turned down a short pathway and at the end stood for a few moments, wondering whether to go to the left and swim with the turtles or to the right, when I suddenly felt a powerful arm grab me around the neck from behind and drag me backwards. I started to scream but the man put his hand over my mouth to stop me. I bit him.
Diane is haunted by her ordeal and now does not go abroad or out at night
‘He continued to drag me backwards over bits of glass and other debris until we got to what was a derelict hotel. He threw me on an old mattress and I started fighting him with all my strength because I was terrified he would kill me. He then grabbed the beach towel I had been carrying and held it over my face so I couldn’t breathe, which forced me to stop struggling. He was also holding down my shoulder so hard that I later discovered he had broken my collarbone. He suddenly picked me up and carried me to another empty room.
‘I am 5ft 4in and weigh just under 9st. He was black, tall and muscular in his mid-30s with a shaved head, a chubby, baby face and dressed only in white shorts. I was overpowered.
‘He then took off my sarong and bikini and raped me. I felt sure he would kill me because I had seen his face but suddenly remembered reading that it can help if you talk to a rapist so that they see you as a person rather than an object.
‘So I told him I was a 61-year-old grandmother with four children and nine grandchildren and felt he slightly softened. I think talking to him saved my life. When he had finished he said, “Make yourself decent but if you tell anyone about this I will kill you.” He then walked away.
‘I grabbed my clothes and staggered about 50 yards, where I came across an exclusive beach club and saw families happily swimming in a pool. It may sound silly but at that moment I felt so relieved that I was alive that I was strangely euphoric.
‘Many of them stared, shocked, at my face, which I hadn’t realised was bruised and swollen. Someone called the police and I sat waiting in a daze, unaware of any of my injuries.
‘Three police officers arrived shortly afterwards. They told me to get in the car and they would drive me around to see if I could see the rapist. Their attitude was totally clinical and not one said any word of sympathy. I didn’t see him, and after about an hour I was taken to the local police station where I waited another hour before being driven to see the female police doctor.
‘The doctor dressed the wounds on my legs from being dragged over glass, took a DNA swab and told me I was very bruised internally. I was then driven back to the station and, to my horror, left sitting outside in the back of the police car on my own for 45 minutes. I was so terrified that the rapist, who had threatened to kill me if I went to the police, might walk by and see me that I didn’t dare get out and walk into the police station. Lots of people peered into the window to look at me, which was awful. The insensitivity of the police was breathtaking.
‘Eventually I was driven back to my apartment for half an hour to have a bath, but my shoulder was hurting so badly I couldn’t wash or even brush my hair. The police then took me to the local hospital, where an X-ray showed I had a broken collarbone and two cracked ribs. I was also given anti-viral tablets in case the rapist was HIV-positive and a hepatitis B injection.’ (Diane subsequently tested negative for HIV.)
‘While I was there, Joanne Carey from the British Consulate came to see me. She told me that the police had only just told her that another British woman, who was in her 20s, had been raped at the same spot two days earlier. I later discovered there are at least 55 known rapes on the island a year – 13 in the past year in the spot where I was attacked.’
Diane have bravely waived her anonymity to expose her treatment after the attack which left her fearing for her life
In fact, according to the Royal Barbados Police Force website, there were 169 incidents of rape, indecent assault and assault with intent to rape in 2010.
‘The next day at 5.30pm I was driven to the police station to give a statement,’ Diane continues. ‘I was questioned for five-and-a-half hours without being offered any food or drink in 86F [30C] heat. My questioner was a female police officer who plainly didn’t know what she was doing and kept asking me the same questions over and over again while she constantly checked a police manual.
‘By 11pm I was in agony with my shoulder and asked if I could go home, not least to take a painkiller. The officer turned to me and said, “It’s not easy for me, you know. I have to do my tour of duty after I have finished with you.” I was speechless at her lack of compassion.
‘Later on, I was again taken to the police station, this time for an identity parade. The rapist wasn’t there, which was lucky in one way as all the men were led right past me as they went out and could identify me.’
On another visit to the hospital, she was left in the casualty department while a victim-support officer went off to chat to her friends.
‘I was absolutely terrified and totally vulnerable about what might happen to me.’ She catches her breath. ‘Please put this in. People need to know how they treat their visitors in Barbados.’
She was being taken back to her condominium by police when they stopped at a shopping mall where she had to sit waiting while a female police officer went to buy a T-shirt.
Diane flew home on Sunday, October 31. ‘My sister and youngest son Gary came to Manchester Airport to meet me and when I saw them I burst into tears. It is very unlike me but I was so relieved to get home.’
She was told by the police tourism officer and the British Consulate that she would be kept up-to-date with her case, but Diane says that unless she pesters the individuals concerned, she hears nothing.
Her experiences chime with those of another British woman whose story was made public earlier this year. Former actress Hilary Heath was the victim of a rape in Barbados in 2004 and said that police had seemed more interested in protecting the island’s reputation.
‘Both the police and the Consulate are inept,’ Diane says. ‘I am so angry that no one has taken what happened to me seriously or realises the impact it has had on my life. My collarbone has never healed and living with it is a terrible reminder. I will no longer go abroad or go out in the evening, and wherever I walk during the day I am constantly looking anxiously over my shoulder.
‘I have submitted a complaint to the Police Complaints Authority in Barbados. Last week, after months, I received a reply from the chairman saying they can’t investigate my complaint because my case is pending before the courts. What nonsense. I was complaining about procedure, not the case itself. I’m going to keep on. I want justice and to know they haven’t dragged anyone off the street just to make a charge.
‘It is also hard to believe that throughout my experience no police officer or victim-support worker asked me if I was all right or showed any sympathy. All I was doing was walking to the sea at 2pm on a beautiful day. It never occurred to me that I could be raped close to a luxury estate on a paradise island yards from where celebrities stay. But if a 61-year-old can be raped, it is a dangerous place for women of any age.’
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We updated our travel advice at the time to warn British nationals that attacks had taken place in the area. We continue to monitor levels of crime in Barbados, in line with our global policy in order to ensure that travel advice remains accurate and up-to-date.’
Paul Brummell, British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said: ‘In July, we organised and sponsored a conference in Barbados for some 34 police officers across the Caribbean on Supporting Victims Of Sexual Assault, with participation from four Barbadian officers. We are supporting a programme in the UK later this month for ten Caribbean police officers to deepen their understanding of UK practice in the support of victims of sexual assault.’
The police in Barbados were not available for comment.
