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CASTRIES, St. Lucia, May 12 2016 – Leader of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Dr Gale Rigobert has voiced concern about an increase in incidents of rape.
“The lack of urgency to address some of the issues suggests that the government is no longer alarmed,” said Rigobert who added that if the government was at all alarmed, it would give greater priority to correcting inefficiencies in the judicial system and reopening the forensic laboratory.
According to the Micoud North MP were that not the case, there would have been a greater level of urgency in enhancing some agencies to ensure they are properly resourced to deal with sex crimes.
She also recalled that the government moved with haste recently to pass the tourism stimulus bill and other legislation.
“It makes one wonder where do the issues of safety and security fall within the priority of the government?”
Rigobert believes that the government needs to do more to convince citizens that it is interested in creating an environment of zero tolerance for sex crimes, especially given the recent spike in rapes.
She spoke against the backdrop of reports that two teenage girls were raped at gunpoint at Derek Walcott square in the heart of the city center on Friday.
According to reports, the gunman suggested that he would not be caught.
The opposition leader asserted that if that were true, it would suggest that the perpetrator and other would be sex criminals are well aware of the gaps in the system.
Rigobert declared that that is even more reason for the government to give priority to creating an environment that sends a clear signal to would be rapists, that no stone would be left unturned in ensuring that rapists are caught and processed.
