RAPED AND LEFT FOR DEAD

Survivor unable to walk after ordeal

It has been more than 10 years since Sandy was raped and left for dead. The memory still lives with her because it left her unable to walk. She told THE STAR that the incident took place while she was walking home from school one day. “I was walking home, and I saw this man across the road. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. He walked pass me, and I kept walking. All of a sudden, mi feel a man grab mi and put a gun a mi head. Mi feel mi foot dem give way, because all me a think now is that me a go dead,” she said. Forced to have sex with the man, Sandy, who was 16 years old at the time, said that was the worst day of her life. She said that she was in so much pain after. “I was fearful of what he would do to my family, because it was someone from the community. I have seen him in my community many times. After he raped me, he beat me with what felt like a baton,” she said. She said that she was blindfolded and every hit she got connected with such force, [that] it felt as though her bones were being shattered. Her mother, Joan, told THE STAR that her daughter was found a day after the incident happened. “Mi know seh sup’m wrong, because she always come home on time. So, the evening me and some a the members of the community set out to find har. Mi did a fret really bad because mi know me daughter. ‘Bout the next morning, mi get a call seh dem find har in some bush and a close to weh wi live,” she said.

HEARTBROKEN

She said that she was so heartbroken that she fainted when she saw her.

Suffering multiple broken bones and a fractured spine from the beating, Sandy said that she could not walk again.

“I have no idea what came over the man. A nuh smady mi know like that enuh, but mi see him in the community and mi seh ‘hello’ and ‘good evening’ because a so mi did stay. Weh the abuse fah dat day? Mi can’t tell you,” said Sandy, who now uses a wheelchair.

Having a supportive family has helped her along the way, but the incident is something that will forever be in her mind.

“Mi nah lie, my family help me out a lot. If a never fi dem, mi nuh know what mi woulda do. But every day me wake up with anger inna me heart and all mi a try forgive, it cyaa work. A the anger me have inna me a mek me wake up each day,” Sandy said. “Mi hear seh him (her attacker) dead and to how mi happy, mi think mi coulda instantly walk,” she laughed. “Mi know a wicked sup’m fi seh, but me nuh do yuh nothing and yuh mash up my life. Mi only regret seh a nuh me do the deed,” she added.