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.