Chester Sam­bra­no

What start­ed off as a rou­tine jour­ney to work changed a woman’s en­tire out­look on men in this coun­try af­ter she was kid­napped robbed and raped.

The mat­ter is now be­fore the High Court so Guardian Me­dia has with­held her iden­ti­ty.

She said it was a day in Jan­u­ary 2016, 7:03 pm to be ex­act, she was wait­ing on a taxi to head to work in Ch­agua­nas.

She ex­plained that on­ly PH taxis work that hour so when a black Almera blinked lights at her, she didn’t hes­i­tate to en­ter.

In­side there were three men in­clud­ing the dri­ver and soon things got a bit strange.

She said, “So while he dri­ving I re­alise all the glass­es go­ing up so I say dri­ve what go­ing on? He said shut up!”

He then in­struct­ed the man in the back to take her back and told her to put her face down.

“I say face down dri­ve I preg­nant you know, he said face down.”

She said while dri­ving he said, “This is their job, this is what they do.”

The men then asked for her ATM card and or­dered her to give them the pin num­ber.

They drove in­to a gas sta­tion and one of the men went to the atm and with­drew all her mon­ey.

She said they promised to drop her off. But that promise they did not keep.

She re­alised the plan had changed when the man in the back put a gun in­to her back.

The car drove quick­ly for a while and when she tilt­ed her head to peep, “I on­ly see black and bush. Hear me, Lord, what is this?”

Soon the car came to a stop and the dri­ver or­dered her out the car in­to the dark­ness.

“He said take off all your clothes then he said all that clothes you have on.”

All this while the oth­er two men looked on.

“The dri­ver said I will go first and the dri­ver did what he had to do and the one who was be­hind with me he got to do what he had to do to and af­ter when the next one was com­ing a big truck come in.”

The truck was dri­ving re­al­ly slow to see what was tak­ing place and they told her to get in­to the car and told her to stay low.

The truck dri­ver lin­gered for a while so they got spooked.

They de­cid­ed to put her out with her clothes and shoes.

“He said when the car dri­ving off do not turn back be­cause if you watch the car we will shoot you so when the car turn then I turned and I glimpsed the num­ber plate.”

She said it was a long road to get out.

“I run I walk I run I walk.”

Even­tu­al­ly, she saw a maxi and head­ed straight for the po­lice sta­tion.

“The of­fi­cers like they see some­thing was wrong so they just run out and take me in one time.”

They called a fe­male of­fi­cer from Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion.

“While trans­port­ing back to Cou­va they get a next re­port that the same peo­ple rape some­body else that same night by the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um.”

As she re­count­ed the or­deal the sur­vivor said, “I was think­ing they were about to kill me. All I re­mem­ber my moth­er used to say in time of trou­ble just pleased the blood of Je­sus.”

She said po­lice passed the heav­i­ly tint­ed ve­hi­cle sev­er­al times but nev­er stopped it.

But she is not an­gry at the po­lice, she said for days they per­sist­ed with the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and gave it a high pri­or­i­ty.

“It is a sad sit­u­a­tion to know that these kinds of peo­ple still walk­ing around and get­ting bail and all these things be­cause you rape a preg­nant woman, you have no con­science,” she said.

Al­though the crime was com­mit­ted five years ago, the trag­ic death of An­drea Bharatt has reignit­ed emo­tions she felt back then.

Watch­ing the news she felt an­gry and emo­tion­al.

“You see that fright what that girl feel be­lieve it, fright alone can kill you in that sit­u­a­tion.”

The sur­vivor con­sid­ers her­self to be “a luck one,” as she is still alive to­day to tell her sto­ry.

Now she ad­vo­cat­ing that men who com­mit such heinous crime be de­nied bail and she’s didn’t stop there.

“It have a lot of evil men walk­ing this earth, to me I be­lieve they should bring back hang­ing.”

She said such men must know there are con­se­quences for their ac­tion.

And while po­lice lat­er held one of the sus­pects in her mat­ter, he has been grant­ed bail await­ing the start of his high court tri­al.

So it is she who is liv­ing in a prison, afraid to go out and still fear­ful of trav­el­ling.

To this day she does not en­ter taxis with men in­side.