The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

OFFICIALS are still stumped on the details surrounding an alleged gang rape of a young school girl which came to light in the House of Assembly on Monday, Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin said yesterday.

Speaking to The Tribune at the Cabinet office, Mrs Griffin said at this point an investigation was taking place to determine if the incident in fact did happen.

The probe was sparked after Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner took the government to task on why the rape – with another similar incident of an LW Young student – had not been reported to authorities. Neither was it in any daily police crime report.

According to the former Social Services Minister she was notified that the school girl, who is from Long Island, had been flown to New Providence with a family member after the sexual assault. She was receiving the attention of several government agencies, Mrs Butler-Turner said Monday.

“I thought it was very irresponsible,” Mrs Griffin said, ”of her to do what she did. The issue she raised she claims happened on Friday or Saturday. It was Monday when she raised the matter. But we all know that there is an investigation process that has to take place. Things like the matters she raised are very sensitive issues.”

“So that is where we are in the investigative process.”

However, the Minister’s explanation of why she seemed uninformed did not sit well with Mrs Butler-Turner.

“When you are a government Minister, you are never off duty. While I can acknowledge that maybe she doesn’t know or wasn’t informed, I do note that when the shoe was on the other foot she was constantly jumping down my throat on something,” said Mrs Butler-Turner.

While the claims shocked several parliamentarians, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald accused Mrs Butler-Turner of “sensationalising or making up” the matter for her own purposes in a series of emails between the two.

Mrs Butler -Turner had initially inquired of Permanent Secretary of Social Services, Barbara Burrows, to intervene in advising Mrs Griffin that she did make inquiries both verbally and via e-mail regarding the allegations of an alleged rape of an LW Young student.

The email was secondarily sent to Mr Fitzgerald and the Social Services Minister.

Mrs Butler-Turner noted that Mrs Burrows on February 19 said officials were awaiting a police report on the matter.

Minister Fitzgerald later responded: “Mrs. Butler-Turner I can report categorically that no rape or attempted rape has occurred at LW Young. There was a report of a young man ‘feeling up’ a girl and the administrators and police have addressed this.
“I would suggest that in the future before you make statements concerning any alleged incidents in the public schools you send me a note for clarification to avoid being seen as an ‘alarmist’.”

In another email, she dismissed Mr Fitzgerald’s criticism.

“The fact of the matter is that ‘an alarmist,’” said Mrs Butler -Turner, ”would never have taken the prescribed course of action as I did, to determine the veracity of said allegations and wait for over one month when yet another incident that this time is incontrovertible has occurred.

“Obviously your best defence is to offend. The disparaging manner in which you display your condescending attitude is not worth my further engagement. 
 “As for my purpose, it is as yours should be, and that is to SERVE those who elected me and the wider Bahamian public. If in so serving, it means addressing the very pressing and yes painful concerns of those who legitimated and validated my purpose then that is what I will do. No amount of castigation or intimidation will deter me from this course.”