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Women’s groups want Greene fired for professional misconduct
Members of women’s rights organizations, Red Thread and Help and Shelter,
Members of Red Thread picketing Office of the President yesterday
yesterday picketed the Office of the President calling for Police Commissioner, Henry Greene, to be terminated for professional misconduct since he had admitted to having sex with a woman, who had sought assistance from his Office.
Last December, a woman alleged that she was raped by the Commissioner of Police after she sought his assistance in a police matter that she was engaged in. The Commissioner maintained that the sex was consensual.
After weeks of investigation by independent investigators from the Jamaica Constabulary Force and amidst much speculation and anxiety, the Director of Public Prosecution Shalimar Ali-Hack advised that Green be charged with rape.
However, the Commissioner moved to the High Court to challenge the decision by DPP that he be charged for rape.
Chief Justice Ian Chang, who heard the challenge, reviewed the evidence and gave his ruling. The outcome of that ruling has stalled the institution of the rape charge against Greene.
According to Red Thread’s executive member, Karen De Souza, the picketing exercise stemmed from Chief Justice Ian Chang’s ruling last week that Shalimar Ali-Hack Director of Public Prosecutions’ recommendation that Greene be charged with rape was irrational.
The Chief Justice in his ruling had said, “While the complainant did set out circumstances which unequivocally point to Greene’s commission of the offence of rape against her, it strains one’s credulity to believe that she, succumbing to verbal pressure and any threatening conduct by Greene, came out of a car and entered the hotel room without seeking to run away or escape from Greene, even though he had expressly made clear to her his intention of having sexual intercourse with her.”
According to De Souza, the Commissioner has confessed his misconduct and since the Office of the Commissioner of the Police is a constitutional appointment the President (Donald Ramotar) should terminate Greene’s appointment.
“There is provision under the law and constitution for the authorities to address Greene’s confessed misconduct… When Mr. Greene had ‘sexual intercourse’ with the woman he knew the police were investigating her… There is something seriously irregular in the Police Commissioner soliciting sex from a woman who was vulnerable,” De Souza said.
She asserted that Red Thread is also disputing the legal ground of the Chief Justice to review the evidence the way he did and arrive at conclusion since nobody was cross-examined.
“Mr. Chang managed to examine the evidence and presumably dispassionately arrive at a conclusion. Something is severely wrong with that because we are not aware that, that is the way the courts work,” she stressed.
De Souza noted that Chang’s ruling has many wondering if the Sexual Offence Act of 2010 was given careful consideration in this case since the Act speaks specifically of consensual sex.
She explained that in Greene’s affidavit to the court he said that his sexual encounter with the woman was consensual.
However, Red Thread believes that such a claim should be determined by a judge and jury and not for Chang to examine.
She stated, “The Sexual Offences Act is very clear about the circumstance of consent- the fact is if you are in a position of power and authority over somebody like the rape victim then sex cannot be assumed to be consensual and particularly given Greene’s admission it is important to us that the matter be given to a jury to determine.”
De Souza stressed that it was out of order for Chang to make that determination in his own deliberate judgement.
“I certainly feel that Mr. Greene’s position did not weigh heavily in Mr. Chang’s deliberation and it should have, because every Guyanese in this country knows it is not possible to get a report against the police taken by the police, much less the Commissioner of the Police,” she said.
De Souza stressed that Chang has dismissed the Sexual Offences Act designed to hopefully increase the rape hearings in the court to create conditions where women could take their reports to the police.
Some placards held by members of Red Thread read: “Where is the protection of women from the professional predators”; “Charge Greene for subverting police investigation”; and “Henry Greene is guilty of professional criminality.”
The group plans to protest outside the Ministry of Home Affairs today.
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