By Fareeza Haniff
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Alliance For Change (AFC) Parliamentarian, Cathy Hughes has criticized the Georgetown Public Hospital for not aggressively tackling the alleged baton rape of 23 – year – old Colwyn Harding by a Police Constable.
The GPHC had maintained that the young man never reported to them that he was raped and as such, they did not examine him for such reports and no examination was done even after the alleged rape came to the forefront.
An independent medical expert has since found that a ‘foreign object’ was inserted into Harding’s anus, causing him to bleed internally.
When asked about the issue during an AFC press conference, Hughes said, “It shows that the medical professionals have not put some basic parameters in place to protect their own integrity and to make sure that they are able to look after patients regardless of whether they are perceived to be a criminal or not.”
She said this is a worrying trend. “The fact that we have not put anything in place and this continues to happen is very, very worrying and so it means that this time around the doctors did not even feel the need clearly to do a complete examination, to even consult with the patient to say privately ‘what happened? Why are you here?”
Harding alleged that the rape occurred sometime in November 2013; however the matter only came to light in January 2014 while he was a patient at the GPHC. Doctors there diagnosed him with Hernia.
In this regard, Hughes pointed out that even after the rape allegation was made, the doctors made no attempt to examine Harding or to even question him on exactly what took place.
