Sexual abuse victims prefer to move on than endure case

But why are so many victims reluctant to testify in court? Branker-Taitt says there’s a legitimate reason and that has to do with the very sensitive issue involving perpetrator and victim, particularly in sex offences. It’s a frequent problem that not only the D.P.P.’s office faces but also relevant agencies, like the Ministry of Human Development.

Judith Alpuche, C.E.O., Ministry of Human Development
“There are many challenges when it comes to prosecution of cases and we really need to deal with those from a legal perspective as well as from a systemic perspective. Challenges having to do with carnal knowledge in cases of stepfathers being perpetrators and the data at least coming from the Department of Human Services tells you that fathers and stepfathers are significant perpetrators of sexual abuse against children. You will have families that decide that they don’t want the prosecution to go through and so you will have families not cooperating and that is a huge barrier, especially in the face of not having DNA evidence that you can prove scientifically what has occurred. So that’s a huge issue. Also because of the backlog of cases and the volume of work within the court system and the prosecution, just how long cases take, these are horrendous experiences for the entire family and often times they just want to close the door on it and move on.”

Cheryl-Lynn Branker-Taitt, Director of Public Prosecutions
“In some sexual offense cases the complainants have been reluctant to go to court and relive what has happened to them. They have said that they do not wish to pursue the case any further. In some sexual offense cases as well the victims would have been under the age of consent at the time of the incident but by the time of trial they have moved on with their lives, they don’t want to relive what has happened. Some of them have gotten married to the perpetrators, some of them have had children by them and of course do not want the father of their children to be incarcerated and so they’ve refused to testify. In those circumstances we’re forced to withdraw the cases.”