Human Services Department officials urged child victims of sex crimes to seek help Tuesday after a St. Thomas woman’s recent arrested on rape and incest charges.
Although women charged with raping boys was a rarity, Assistant Commissioner Carla Benjamin said it was likely an underreported crime. And while the Oct. 18 arrest was not a forceable rape, Benjamin said the psychological damage to a victim of sexual assault, especially at the hands of a trusted family member, could be long-lasting.
“It probably happens more frequently than we know, or more frequently than we are willing to admit to,” Benjamin said. “In this instance, it’s a good thing that the law doesn’t make a difference whether the perpetrator is male or female. A violation is a violation. And the violators need to be held accountable.”
Moving from an appropriate familial relationship between an adult and a child to an inappropriate sexual interaction could create trust and intimacy issues that last a lifetime if not addressed, Benjamin said.
In the recent case, a 24-year-old woman started having sex with her 13-year-old cousin in 2021. She told police she was aware of their close family relations and that there was an age difference but did not think much of it, according to court records. The woman told police she thought he was older than 13.
The boy, now 16, said it started as a friendship, then kissing, then sex, some of which was photographed or videotaped, according to court records. The woman bought the boy and his family expensive gifts, including clothes, shoes, food, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max, which retails for around $1,000, according to court records.
The woman was charged with rape, aggravated rape, incest, child abuse, and unlawful sexual contact. She had been accused of aggravated assault in 2020 but the charges were dropped.
Benjamin said there are no statutes of limitations on rape in the Virgin Islands. She urged anyone who has been assaulted to contact police. If they aren’t comfortable doing that, they should find someone to talk to. Bottling up such trauma could manifest in depression, anxiety, substance abuse, or even further abuse by someone else.
“It’s not your fault. You are the child in that situation. Even if you’re not comfortable calling the police, reach out to any sort of law enforcement, government, Department of Human Services or whatever. Talk to an adult you trust,” she said. “Talk to someone. Tell them what’s going on so they can help talk you through what it is you are feeling and, hopefully, point you in the direction of agencies like Family Resource Center, Women’s Coalition, where there is no cost associated with being able to talk a counselor. We’ll be able to help you understand and work through some of the confusion, some of the feelings that you’re having.”
Those feelings include fear, confusion, isolation, and disenchantment. The breach of trust can be jarring to the point the victim sympathizes with the abuser.
“Sometimes there’s fear around the stigma and around what the consequences may be,” she said. “If not addressed. Some of those feelings that are bottled up can come out in hyper-vigilance, in lack of trust, in lashing out at others because the person who was violated had never had a way to healthily work through what they’re feeling of helplessness, some of the confusing and traumatic feelings that they’re kind of bottling up. And sometimes it can cause them to, unfortunately, be in situations where they’re victimized again because they were not able to work through the trauma.”
The child victim may also have reservations or feel bad about getting the older person in trouble. This could be a device of the perpetrator to encourage silence, she said.
“Sometimes the adult, sometimes overtly and sometimes not so overtly, kind of hints at, you know, I might get arrested. So there might be guilt around the consequences for the perpetrator, especially in situations where the family member is somebody who you genuinely care about and would not, in a usual situation, want to hurt. Sometimes the child feels like they’re having to choose between their safety and that person,” Benjamin said.
Anyone who is the victim of rape or sexual abuse in the Virgin Islands can report it to police, who can file ask the Justice Department to file charges at any time — even decades after the abuse.
“There is no statute of limitation,” she said. “It hasn’t been too long. Take care of yourself. Report it. It will be taken seriously. You are important. You are valuable and it should not have happened.”
