And while the PM earned applause on that declaration – he wasn’t clapping for all the misunderstanding that has sprung up in the wake of that ugly case of sodomy we’ve been reporting on. On Friday night an 11 year old in Santa Elena was allegedly sodomised by his 16 year old brother. Police have been investigating and we’ll tell you about that shortly, but today it came up when the Prime Minister addressed all the misunderstandings that have resulted from this case. First, it was reported by Plus TV’s Luis Wade that the 16 year old told his younger sibling that he can’t be prosecuted for it because of the Chief Justice’s decision. If he did say that, it would be wrong, since, the Chief Justice’s decision only refers to consenting acts between adults. Today the Prime Minister addressed the many misunderstandings that have resulted from the judgment:..
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"There was a case in the last few days of reports of a 16 year old sodomising his younger brother an 11 year old and I heard people in the radio saying well nothing can happen to the 16 year old because government has changed the law and that's now legal. Again I want to be extremely measured, we are not here to quarrel with a soul this afternoon but we have to make a plea for people to; if it is at all humanly possible, put aside the emotion in terms of getting at what the ruling does and does not do. A part from and that's why the attorney general was careful to talk about consensual sexual acts because the law didn't just criminalise homosexual acts in terms of what you would describe as sodomy. Anal intercourse between a man and his wife was criminalise by that section so let us be clear; all the chief justice has done is to say that consensual sexual acts between adults who are well capable of consenting will no longer will have to face any prospect of a criminal sanctioned. Rape is still rape whether it is forcible rape committed by 1 adult on another or whether it is statutory rape in the case of an adult and a minor; a minor cannot consent so going back to the case of the 16 year old who was accused of in effect incest and rape with respect to his younger brother. All the force of the law prescribing criminalising those sort of actions remains entirely valid and applicable."
As an update to the police investigation into that case, police say the accused 16 year old was detained an hour ago and charges should be laid tomorrow.
The file should be completed by tonight or first thing in the morning. It includes a second detailed statement from the victim.
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