Mother, teenage daughter rescued from ‘abusive father’

Jan 04, 2014 News

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The actions of a member of the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) led to a mother and her 14-year-old daughter being rescued from the teen’s father who allegedlytried to have sexual intercourse with the two.
The distraught mother and her daughter on Monday last at the GWMO’s office on Brickdam, Georgetown, said that they struggled to hold back their tears as they expressed how happy they were that the GWMO stepped in and assisted them.
The 14-year-old girl and her mother were living in Guyana for some time but migrated to Trinidad and Tobago where they lived a comfortable life for some eight years. However, the teenager who lived with her adopted father in the Republic Twin Island always felt a need within her heart to reach out to her biological father,

39-year-old Troy Tom of Amelia’s Ward, Linden. And so she came to Guyana in September. She stayed with her grandmother in Essequibo.
The desire to know her father increased when she returned to her homeland and she pleaded with her grandmother to assist her in the quest to find her father. The grandmother was successful in locating the father. The 14-year-old and her father were soon speaking frequently.
Overwhelmed with the feeling to see her father, she then asked her grandmother to visit her father. The teenager told her grandmother that the father had been insisting on seeing her alone, but the grandmother upon hearing this, told her that she will not be going without her 31-year-old mother.
When the mother came in early December 2013, the teenager informed her mom of her desire to meet her dad with whom she had made contact. She told her mother that her father had said he has a two-bedroom apartment and a shop that he owns.
When the two visited Tom at his ‘secret villa’ in the interior, they realized instantly that they were deceived. The father was not living in any apartment but in a cramped room in a hotel at the junction of Konawaruk, Essequibo.
Tom invited the them into his “humble space” and tried his best to persuade them that he was the “perfect father,” but this ‘front,’ according to the teenager, only lasted for two days.
She said, “I was disappointed that dad didn’t tell me why he lied to me. He said he had an apartment but he didn’t. It was a small room with a very small bed. You couldn’t lie on your back you had to lie on your side so all three of us could fit. We went there on December 21 and we was to come out on New Year’s Day but he told us we can’t leave.
“He said he would let us go if we give him sex. He always wanted me to undress in front of him. He use to slap me on my bottom and when I would tell him to stop he would laugh. He even use to try and kiss me, like put his tongue in my mouth. I use to tell him stop but he use to tell me how we in the interior and is like he in charge.
“He even told me that I am nothing he expected me to be and that when I grow up I will be a prostitute. We were very afraid. Anything we use to object to would cause a big quarrel between him and mommy.”
She added, “Even when I want to sleep he use to tell me how he want to be in the bed and hug up with me when I sleeping and if I shy away from him he use to threaten to spit in my mouth when I am sleeping.”
The mother then explained how terrifying it was from her perspective. She said, “I was so afraid when I was there with my daughter. He didn’t want us to leave there. He told me how we can’t leave but if we give him sex he would let us out by the end of January.”
Simona Broomes, Head of the GWMO told this publication that, one of her members who work close to the area was spending the night at the said hotel. The woman, Marina Charles, was awakened to the loud quarreling and threats being made to the woman and her daughter and without hesitation, she intervened.
The man, who then recognized Charles to be a member of the GWMO, told his ex-wife that if she made a sound, Charles would take her daughter and she would never see her again. However, Charles explained that she was there to help both of them. Tom who became highly annoyed with the mother held on to the daughter and said she was not leaving. A scuffle ensued but the two eventually broke free and escaped with Charles.
Charles then made contact with Broomes and informed her of the situation.  Arrangements were immediately made to collect the woman and her daughter.
Charles then told the two to board a minibus where they were given specific instructions to get off at the minibus park at Linden where two other members of the organization were awaiting their arrival.
Tom, who was determined not to let go of the two, got into the same vehicle. Broomes was then updated on this development and she tried for some time to contact the commander of the E Division so that an officer could escort the woman and her teenage daughter.
Two female police officers eventually boarded the minibus but the man continued to be abusive.
When they arrived in Linden, after observing that there were two other members on site, Tom went into another direction.
The two victims were then escorted to Georgetown and were taken to the Child Protection Agency where a report was made. While the two are still in the custody of the GWMO, Broomes said that she will be taking them to the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department where an official report will be made.
Broomes however expressed that she is unhappy that the assailant was not arrested by the officers. She said, “The man should have been arrested at Wismar. I am not happy that I could not get on to the police.
“We are always talking about standing up for women in these situations and gender balance and lauding the amount of women in Parliament but we need to feel their presence. In fact I would like to make a call on them to feel their presence and for them to do more in terms of all this abuse and trafficking in women.”

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