The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A GRAND Bahama woman who was left emotionally traumatised and physically scarred is warning other women to be careful at bars and nightclubs after she was reportedly drugged and raped by a stranger while celebrating at a local nightspot last year.

The woman did not file a police complaint following the incident out of denial and embarrassment of what had happened. However, she felt compelled to go public with her story to make other women aware of what could happen to them.

She warned there are “predators” who prey on vulnerable women at the bars.

“I had been celibate for years,” said the woman, still very traumatised and upset. “Nobody has the right to do that to someone.”

While out celebrating at a nightspot, the woman said that a man sat down next to her at the bar smoking a cigar. She was not concerned because her friend worked at the bar and was very familiar with the male who was a frequent patron there.

While having a few drinks, she got up and went over to talk to some women who were sitting at a table. After chatting with the women, she returned to the bar where she had left her drink.

“I took a sip of my drink and about 15 minutes later, I got very woozy. I told my friend I needed to go home so I could get something to eat,” she recalled.

“When I got up, he followed me. I got into my car, and I had no idea how I got home,” said the woman, who claimed she must have been drugged.

“That thing hit me like a ton of bricks. I have no idea how I got home because I was totally inebriated. I drove my car home, and I remembered him coming in and helping me inside. I said, ‘Wow, what a nice guy he is helping me inside.’

She then remembered going into her bedroom and taking off her shoes and her pants.

“I remembered him saying something about how sexy I was, but all I wanted to do is get in bed because I was out of it. I knew what was going on around me vaguely, but I could not do anything about it,” she said.

The woman remembered waking up around 4am feeling sick and nauseated. “I wanted to vomit, my stomach was upset so bad, I started to throw up. It hurt so bad because I had not eaten all day,” she said.

While trying to compose herself, she realized that she did not have any clothing on.

“I am sitting down thinking to myself, ‘why am I naked?” I went back to the bedroom to lie down, but this little voice inside me said, ‘no, why are you naked?”

“I got up and went into the bathroom because I was sweating profusely. No one else was there. I took a shower, and I could feel this burning sensation in my private area,” she said.

The woman said she knew something was wrong and that something had happened.

Frightened and horrified, the woman said that she could not believe that she had been raped in her house by a stranger who followed her home from the bar.

“I don’t go out to pick up anybody; I had been celibate for years,” she said. She admitted to having a few drinks on her birthday, but said she knows her limit with alcohol.

The next morning she contacted her girlfriend and asked who had followed her home from the bar.

“My friend told me who it was; I told her something had happened; I told her he raped me,” she said.

“I did not want to go to the Rand Memorial Hospital and stayed home Sunday and tried to deal with what had happened to me.

On Monday morning, the woman went to see a private doctor who examined her. She told the doctor what had happened.

The woman said that she had bruises in her private area. She had various tests done, including an AIDS test at a cost of some $500. She later learned that she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease known as Trichomoniasis, which is a parasitic infection.

The woman noted that the entire ordeal was hard emotionally and physically.

The woman told her private physician what had happened.

She said the doctor urged her to see a therapist. She noted that she spent another $1,800 for series of STDs, and was prescribed a cocktail of antibiotics to prevent any developing STDs.

The woman said that the man had contacted her on several occasions as if they were in a relationship. “He started calling me like we were in a relationship and asked me if everything was all right. I confronted him and told him what he had done to me,” she said.

“I had gone off on him and I blocked him because he had called me about 50 times that day,” she recalled.

The woman believes that the man might have done this before.

“I want women to know there are predators out there,” she warned. “There are men out there at the bars… but they are predators and they are preying on women. I don’t think I was the first person he did this to.

“I was drugged and raped, but I was in denial; I could not believe it happened to me. People need to be warned not to leave their drink unattended at the bar, and if someone offers to buy you a drink do not accept it.”

“I let my guard down for the first time in my life and paid dearly for it. You hear stories like this before and say to yourself, ‘how did that happen?’ But it happened to me.”

The woman said that not telling anyone about it has affected her deeply. She has not told her family and fears that her relatives may seriously harm the individual and get in trouble with the law.

In the meantime, she wants women to be on their guard when out at the bars, nightclubs and other public establishments, particularly at night.