The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

STATE National Security Minister Keith Bell yesterday stood by his earlier comments that there has been a recent spike in rapes, but insisted that Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade was correct when he told reporters that the overall reported cases of the crime are down.

Mr Bell told The Tribune that he did not want to get into a back and forth argument with the commissioner or other police officials over the statistics.

He added that his job is to focus on how to prevent crimes and offer support to law enforcement with a view to ensuring the “cowards” are placed behind bars where they belong.

This comes after Mr Greenslade told reporters on Wednesday that rape statistics were trending downward compared to last year.

It appeared that he was contradicting Central Detective Unit chief Supt Paul Rolle and Mr Bell who both said earlier this month that authorities were concerned about “a spike” in sexual assault cases.

After Supt Rolle warned the public to be vigilant in view of these cases, Mr Bell last week said he wanted tougher sentences for serial rapists who police believe are behind the rash of rapes.

“I don’t think there is any confusion,” Mr Bell said yesterday when contacted for comment. “Both the commissioner and I are correct.

“The commissioner is correct that there is no overall increase in crime rape stats, with which I agree. However, I said there has been a recent spike in rape cases. This means that regardless of the overall numbers, the recent incidents of rape reports reflect a spike.

“Hence, a few weeks ago, (Supt Paul Rolle) issued an advisory for women to be aware of their surroundings. I echoed the previous warning of the RBPF spokesperson.”

Mr Bell was also asked if he thought that Mr Greenslade was attempting to downplay the severity of the situation.

“It is not my focus to engage the commissioner,” he responded, “nor (do I want to) speculate as my only focus is crime prevention and in this context, (to) support all efforts of law enforcement to catch these cowards and put them behind bars where they belong.”

On Wednesday, Mr Greenslade said during a press conference that while one rape is too many, he was disturbed that such an alarm was being sounded over the issue.

He said many of the cases had appeared to be between acquaintances.

“Quite frankly I was surprised by that because that was not brought to my attention in that way. I do not want to, as we say locally, throw anyone under the bus, except to say that rape figures are all down. They have been trending down for a very long time. They are still down over last year and based on what I see, by the end of the year those figures are going to be down over the figure from last year.”

On October 7, Supt Rolle raised alarm following the sexual assault of four women over a three-week period. Two of them had been walking and the other two were driving their vehicles before they were attacked.

A week after his warning another woman was raped when a man forced his way into her home. She was at her house on Gibbs Corner when the man gained entry around 1am and sexually assaulted her before fleeing on foot.

The following day a woman was raped by a man she knew who entered her home at Hay Street, police said.

Last week Mr Bell said that to curb the occurrence of sexual assaults throughout the capital, police were conducting “very aggressive” stop and search operations.

Police have not released the latest rape figures.

However, according to statistics released by police in January, reported rapes in 2013 rose eight per cent over 2012 from 96 to 104. Those figures also show that attempted rape rose 82 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012 from 11 to 20 while unlawful sexual intercourse incidents rose two per cent from 151 to 154.

In January, Mr Greenslade expressed concern that reported sexual offences increased last year. At the time he said police would give more attention to this area.