The Tribune

By Nico Scavella

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A Jamaican woman broke down in tears yesterday as she recounted how a senior immigration officer forced her to have sex with him against her wishes five years ago.

Claudia Edwards Bethel sobbed audibly after telling the court how Norman Bastian groped her before forcing himself on her and defiling her in his bedroom on December 15, 2014.

All the while, Ms Bethel said she kept pushing him off and telling him she wanted to go home to her children, but she said Mr Bastian refused to oblige her and told her she would have to stay the night.

After the first incident, she said she sat up in bed, crying and afraid, and unsure of what would happen next.

“The door was locked, I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

The next morning, she said, Mr Bastian raped her again while wearing a condom. Ms Bethel said he subsequently told her to brush her teeth and “tidy up” herself. After she did as instructed, she said he forced her to perform oral sex on him.

Ms Bethel said she took the condom and hid it in her bosom, and said when she finally went home, she placed it in her refrigerator. She said she ultimately handed it over to police officers when she reported the incident.

She also said she gave the police the number of the camera she saw in Mr Bastian’s room, which she said she wrote down.

“I give it to them so they could believe me and see that what I talking is the truth,” she said.

The evidence suggests she performed the sexual act twice. The testimony comes in Ms Bethel’s civil suit against the government over the alleged incident, years after the rape case against Bastian was tossed out of  the Magistrate’s Court. Mr Bastian has denied the rape and maintains the sex was consensual. 

Mr Bastian’s attorney Wayne Munroe, QC, sought to poke holes in certain aspects of Ms Bethel’s story, as he asserted that her whole narrative stems from her fear of her immigration status in the country.

Mr Munroe specifically attacked Ms Bethel’s evidence concerning the date she said she first arrived in The Bahamas, as well as where she said she lived at the time she got married to her Bahamian husband.

According to Ms Bethel, she first arrived in the Bahamas in 2010. In February of that year, she said she got married to Mario Bethel, a manager at Charms Club whom she met while working there as a waitress.

However, when she was profiled by police officers after being arrested at the Twilight Bar following a late night/early morning raid, she said she arrived into the country in 2011.

Mr Munroe said she signed a document confirming her telling the authorities that she entered the country on the latter date.

Mr Munroe also argued that if she told the authorities she entered the country in 2011, that wouldn’t be consistent with the information contained on her spousal permit.

According to Mr Munroe, she first applied for her spousal permit on October 5, 2010. She was interviewed in February the following year, and the permit was granted on May 3, 2011. That permit was valid until February 2015.

Ms Bethel has said she has since been granted a new spousal permit.

Concerning the addresses, Mr Munroe suggested that at the time of her marriage in February 2010, her address was listed as Malcolm Allotment, not Sunshine Park, where he suggested she told officers she lived when she was arrested.

In response, Ms Bethel said: “My husband keep moving.”

To that end, Ms Bethel said her husband cheated on her and had two children with two different women, and subsequently walked out on her shortly after she got her spousal permit. Afterwards, she said she moved to Oakes Field.

She said she has since started a new relationship.

Meanwhile, Patrick Hanlan, former honorary consul for Jamaica in The Bahamas, testified how Mr Bastian refused to release Ms Bethel and eight other Jamaicans from immigration custody despite word from police that they weren’t planning to charge them.

Mr Hanlan said around 9pm on December 14, 2014, he got a call from the Central Detective Unit (CDU) in reference to them having some 10 foreign nationals—nine Jamaicans in their custody.

Mr Hanlan said when he arrived at the Thompson Boulevard office, he spoke with each of the Jamaicans  separately. According to Mr Hanlan, the Jamaicans, minus Ms Bethel, were either legally landed by immigration officials, or were granted stay extensions.

None of them appeared to have overstayed, he said.

Mr Hanlan said he also had the opportunity to speak with Ms Bethel, who gave him her name and status in the Bahamas—that she was married and had children and had a spousal permit. He said she also told him when and where she was apprehended.

Mr Hanlan said he also spoke with Mr Bastian, as well as a senior officer at CDU, and told the former the substance of his interview with Ms Bethel.

At some point, Mr Hanlan said he was advised that police had no interest in charging the Jamaicans, inclusive of Ms Bethel. Thus, he asked Mr Bastian if Ms Bethel could be released. However, Mr Hanlan said Mr Bastian denied his request, as he was instructed not to release them.

As a result of Mr Bastian’s refusal to let his fellow Jamaicans go, and because he was consequently “concerned”, Mr Hanlan said he advised the immigration officer to seek directions from Immigration Director William Pratt.

Given Mr Bastian’s “hesitation”, Mr Hanlan said, he further suggested that Ms Bethel be released into his custody and he would ensure that she appear before the Department of Immigration that Monday. Mr Hanlan said given his experience as honorary consul, such a request was not farfetched.

However, he said, Mr Bastian maintained his reluctance to release the Jamaicans.

Meanwhile, Mr Hanlan said he had managed to get Ms Bethel’s husband’s number and spoke with him. Mr Hanlan said Mr Bethel confirmed their marriage, and that he had a marriage certificate. Mr Hanlan said Mr Bethel subsequently went to the Central Police Station with his marriage certificate in a bid to have his wife released. However, Mr Bethel had said he did not like the way he was treated by the officers there.

As a result, Mr Hanlan said he told Mr Bethel to get in touch with Mr Bastian.

Mr Hanlan said he ended up leaving CDU in the early hours of December 15. He said his concerns were heightened by that time, which caused him to try to reach out to Mr Pratt, but to no avail.

Mr Hanlan said later that day he was able to get all of the Jamaicans, except Ms Bethel, out of the country. He said he was given no copies of any deportation orders.

That Monday, he said, he called the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, and was told that Ms Bethel was still being detained. Mr Hanlan said he subsequently called Mr Pratt and another man, Mr Beneby, but could not reach them. He said he reached out to Mr Bastian, who assured him he would arrange Ms Bethel’s release.

However, Mr Hanlan could not say why Mr Bastian gave such an assurance.

Mr Hanlan said that Wednesday, he was summoned to CDU. He said he went there and ended up waiting 40 minutes only for officers to not reveal what it was about. He said the officers told him if they needed him they would give him a call.

However, he said, he later learned what the situation was.

Afterwards, Mr Hanlan said, he wrote to the then minister of immigration, Fred Mitchell, outlining everything he had observed since December 14, 2014.

The matter continues today.