Police Constable Accused of Rape Positively Identified

Luke Moreira

Following an identification parade at midday today, Cayo Police are preparing the charge sheet for one of their own accused of a terrible and disturbing crime. Police Constable Luke Moreira is accused of removing a detainee from a cell at the San Ignacio Police Station at gunpoint, taking her into a dark room and then raping her. The incident allegedly happened last Saturday, and since then Cayo Police have been silent as CIB investigators from Belmopan took over. Today that investigation closed with the victim, Vanessa Evans, positively identifying Moreira. We generally do not call the name of an alleged victim of rape, but we do so with her full consent. Mike Rudon went west and has an interview with Evans, and her story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans was detained on Saturday night for a domestic dispute and locked down at the San Ignacio Police Station. She says the WPC who locked her down then left, along with other officers, and only one Policeman stayed behind. She asked for a phone call, and then for water. That’s when she claimed that the officer opened up a conversation.

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans, Alleges Police Constable Raped Her

“He goes like….the white man…weh happen with you and the white man? I said that’s my husband. I said we had a misunderstanding, we had a fight as usual; not something that we couldn’t get over. We can get over it. So I asked him give me another cup of water or get me a bottle of water that I can put in my cell; that way you won’t have to come back and forth getting me a cup of water. He bring me another cup of water. And he looks at me and said I already did all of this for you; now what are you going to do for me? I was like, nothing I am the prisoner; you’re supposed to see what the prisoner needs and stuff like that. It is your job. And he told me that I have to do something for him for payback. And I told him I’m not going to do nothing. Nothing, nothing.”

Evans claims that the Policeman wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans

“He showed me a gun and told me to come out of the cell and I did as I was told because I was fearing for my life. I did as I was told; I came out of the cell and I start walking back to the dark where he told me to walk and go. And when I reached back in the dark, he put a handcuff on my hands and when I start scream for the rest of the prisoners that was there—I was screaming help, help—he put another handcuff on my mouth. I had a piercing on my lip; that’s why I had to take it out because it was sore from him putting the handcuff and it was swollen. So I couldn’t…nobody heard me, I couldn’t do anything. I was laying on my back, my hands cuffed to the back like that.”

After her ordeal, the victim told us that the alleged rapist made her take a shower and then took her back to her cell.

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans

“Six o’clock Sunday morning, I told the first officer that came on duty that the one officer raped me and they told me to shut up. Right now the white guy if gonna come press charge and they gonna send me to Hattieville for six months. So I went back and I sat down in the corner and I shut up. I shut up. there was another officer that comes to take us out to clean the cell and I told her again, they raped me. Don’t you guys wanna take my statement? And she locked me back down again and told me to shut up.”

Evans says that it wasn’t until eleven Sunday night that they came to take her statement and then took her to the hospital to be tested. It was not until today that she was brought in to identify the man she says betrayed her trust and abused her body.

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans

“They put me in a pickup facing the station. I was sitting behind the driver in a tinted pickup vehicle. They bring out five, six officers first…none of the six. And then they bring out another six more and the first one out of the six, I picked out as the rapist.”

As we told you, Evans made the decision to appear on camera and to tell her story because she says she will not back down.

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans

“I’m seeking full justice. I want justice.”

Mike Rudon

“No matter what happens, you’re prepared to take this all the way?”

Vanessa Elizabeth Evans

“No matter what happens, I am prepared to take it all the way. He said that he did it before and he got away with it. I’m not gonna let him get away with it. I wanna stand up for all the other victims that he did it to; that they couldn’t do nothing about it. I am going to help them.”

Moreira is in police custody, but he had not been formally arraigned up to news time. While Cayo Police higher-ups remain quiet, CIB investigators tell us that Moreira will definitely be charged. Mike Rudon for News Five.