The screening of rape victims in many cases takes hours and this hampers police investigations, Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Milton Desir has disclosed.
Desir who was a guest on Police Insight on MBC Television on Monday, said in addition to that, there have been incidents where victims were sent away because the hospital was unable to do an examination.
“You find that an officer who has many reports to investigate has to spend hours at a hospital waiting with this particular rape victim to be examined by a doctor,” Desir explained.
According to him, because of these and other similar cases, the police have put together a team that takes over from the investigator, and would stay with the victim until he/she is examined.
But the police want to ensure that the system is improved and as such, support areas for rape victims are currently being re-examined by the executive, to find a way forward in dealing with this issue.
“As police officers we know that the longer it takes to collect evidence, the worse it gets,” he lamented.
The police remains hopeful that this issue will be resolved especially with a new national hospital coming on board soon. They are suggesting that certain doctors should be assigned to deal with police matters.
Saint Lucia has saw a number of rape incidents over the past year, with the most recent case being a 30-year-old male being accused of having sex with a minor.
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