Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter
This small bar at First Street, Newport West, Kingston, was the scene of a robbery on Thursday night, which led to the brutal rape of three women, two of whom are presumed dead. Their bodies have, however, not yet been found. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
IT HAS been described by veteran policemen as one of the most vicious crimes committed in Jamaica in years. Three women, abducted, beaten, gang-raped, shot and then thrown into a sewage main.
The bodies of two of the women have still not yet been found, but one of the victims survived the heinous attack, only because the man aiming the gun at her temple missed his target by millimetres.
According to witnesses and police reports, this is what happened that fateful Thursday night.
The women, all in their early 20s were at a small bar on First Street, Newport West, on Thursday night when at about 8:30, a car drove up with three men on board.
PULLED GUNS
The men walked into the bar, pulled out guns and held up the patrons. One of the gunmen asked who the owner of a car parked outside the bar was. When he found out, the gunman pulled a small knife and stabbed the owner of the car, a man in his mid 30s, and took the keys to the car. Witnesses say the cut to the man's stomach was wide and deep; a wound brought about by the force with which the attacker manoeuvred the small knife. The victim is said to be in critical condition in hospital.
As the man lay bleeding profusely on the floor, the gunmen calmly loaded a television set and some bottles of alcohol into the car. They then took three women by the arm and while pressing the nozzles of their guns into the women's backs, forced them into the car and sped off.
It is alleged that the gunmen took the women to a dark, grassy area beyond the Tinson Pen Aerodrome where they were joined by more men, and according to friends of the survivor, even boys as young as 10 years old, who all savagely raped the three women.
When this was done, the women were reportedly shot and thrown into the sewage main of the Greenwich Town treatment plant, which empties into the Kingston Harbour.
The woman who survived, did so because the bullet that was intended to enter her temple, missed its target and instead only grazed her skin. She is now under police protection.
Since Friday, police personnel have been engaged in an intense search for the bodies of the other women, but up to press time yesterday, they had not been found.
Yesterday, at the bar where the women were abducted, the mood was grim. Friends of the victims said they have been having difficulty sleeping since that night. The tired expressions on their faces said it all. The bar remained closed and conversations centred solely on the search for the bodies of the other two women.
