Three 14-year-olds charged with Cayo rape

It’s a crime that until recently was covered by a curtain of silence, but rape in Belize has become too common and too big a problem to be hidden or ignored. Yesterday afternoon three fourteen year old boys became the latest to answer for their alleged transgressions as they were charged with rape in San Ignacio Magistrate’s Court. Their charges arise out of an incident that occurred on Sunday afternoon. A fifteen year old girl told police that she was sent by her grandmother to a nearby shop to buy groceries, and while on her errand stopped off at a friend’s house. While there, three young men came to the house and told her that her granny was calling her. She reports that the boys walked her home, but when they reached her house she was coerced into a nearby building in the yard where she was forced to have sexual intercourse with them. The three minors met bail of a thousand dollars each and will reappear in court on the twenty-third of October.