Hell Friday Mute woman gang-raped, 3 others shot dead, 1 injured

KARYL WALKER, Crime/court co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com Saturday, November 15, 2008

Jamaica yesterday experienced one of its most hellish days ever with the brutal gang rape of a mute woman, the slaying of three other women and the shooting of a fifth who was yesterday in hospital battling for life.

The incidents shocked a country already jolted by a string of ruthless murders of children in recent weeks, the latest being that of 11-year-old Christopher Levi *u*kra, a grade seven Petersfield High student whose naked, mutilated body was found Thursday morning in a canefield in Banbury,
Westmoreland. Police believe *u*kra was also sodomised.
Yesterday's torment started when residents of the middle-class community of Mona in St Andrew found the mute woman naked and traumatised in their community.

A resident gave the woman a sheet to cover herself while the police were called. The woman was taken to hospital where she was undergoing a series of tests yesterday.

But while officers from the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) strongly suspect that the woman was raped, their investigations are being hampered as she cannot speak and was so shaken by her torture that she refused to use sign language when an expert was called in to communicate with her.

"She seems to be in shock. The poor thing would not even use sign language, so at this point we are moving slowly along with the investigation," an officer from CISOCA told the Observer yesterday.

Police named the murdered women as Rosemarie Smith, also called 'Rasta', of Water Lane in Kingston; Shadel Holding-Witter, 40, of Kintyre in St Andrew; and 45-year-old Judith Lee.

Smith was attacked at her home on Water Lane in Kingston about 4:00 am yesterday and shot several times. Her bullet-riddled body was found sprawled out in her yard, police said.
Holding-Witter was also at home in the troubled Kintyre community when gunmen struck just before 7:00 am yesterday. Residents reported hearing a barrage of gunshots and when they went to investigate, the woman was found dead on her verandah. She was shot several times.

Police say Lee was a prostitute who worked in the vicinity of Seymour Avenue in Kingston. Her badly bruised, nude body was found yesterday morning by residents who called the police. It also appeared that she was strangled, police said.

The injured woman was shot by a gang of thugs who kicked in the door to the home she shared with her spouse, 76-year-old Rupert 'Papa' Jones, at John's Road in St Catherine early yesterday morning. Jones was shot and died on the spot.

-- Edited by nexx at 13:02, 2008-11-15