FOREST ORDEAL

Reliving the trauma she endured, hours later to police, the teen said at one stage during the gang-rape she begged the men to stop and let her go but they cursed her and slapped her across the face. The teen said at this stage, she thought she was going to die and in her mind, began making peace with the Almighty, not even bothering to pray to be released.

According to a police report, at about 5.15 am, the girl was liming with two male friends in the porch of her Valencia home.

Hours earlier, the girl’s family had a lime at the house with the two young men being the only guests who remained after the get together ended. Without warning, two men - one with a bandana (large handkerchief) covering his face and the other with a hat pulled over his face - emerged from the pre-dawn darkness, entered the porch and began beating the young men.

As her friends cowered in fear on the floor, the girl was grabbed by the two intruders who took her into the bushes at the back of the house which led to the forest.

After walking for over two miles, the trio were met by another man who was holding a gun.

They then continued the trek in pouring rain until they reached the banks of a river. There the men took turns raping the teen.

In the meantime, the girl’s relatives contacted the Valencia police and officers responded immediately, alerting their counterparts from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit as well as soldiers from the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force.

Officers from the Eastern Division Task Force and the Air Support Unit also got involved in a massive search of the forest for the abducted teen. Officers later came across a farmer who told them he had earlier heard a scream and directed the officers to the direction of the sound.

Officers involved in the search included ASP Robain, Acting ASP Rishi Singh, Inspector Ken Lutchman, PC Khan, PC Hernandez and others. After the gang-rape, the three men marched the naked girl out of the forest and toward a Nissan B11 car parked off the main road known as the Valencia Stretch. Seeing that she was about to be forced into the vehicle, the girl started to struggle with the men and managed to escape, running back into the bushes where she hid. The men did not bother pursuing her and instead got into the car and sped off.

At 6.30 am, the girl was found by police officers cowering and weeping on the forest floor. She was given a sheet to cover herself and taken immediately to the district health centre for treatment.

There she was reunited with weeping relatives. Police officers said the teen was thankful to have survived the harrowing ordeal in the forest. Even as she was being treated, police were busy setting up roadblocks as they continued the search for the three rapists.

Up to press time, no arrest had been made.

Police sources said they believe the men may be hiding in the forest and as such, teams of officers were in the bushes searching for them. Sources further said that trained counsellors from the TT Police Service’s Victims of Crime Support Unit will visit the teen at her home, to provide counselling.