TEARS

The mother of the eight-year-old girl from Irwin, St James, has recounted the harrowing night of Monday, September 24 when she, her daughter and three other females aged 14, 16 and 23 were raped.

Four days after the ordeal, the woman, 28, says it has been a struggle for the entire family.

However she says it has been extremely difficult for her mother, as well as the child’s father.

“I want my mother,” the woman said this morning, tears streaming down her face.

But with her mom living in England, the distance is only adding to the pain.

And the woman says each day she goes to the hospital to see her injured eight-year-old writhing in agony, her anguish deepens.

“I break down every morning,” said the mother of two.

The woman recalled that some time after 10 o’clock on Monday night when their Irwin home was invaded by two gunmen, the criminalsgathered all five females, her three-year-old baby and a seven-year-old nephew, took away their cellphones and led them into nearby bushes.

She said the men then demanded money before taking the eight-year-old girl into the house.

The perpetrators would later rape the other four females in the bushes.

After the ordeal, the mother, her baby, nephew and the three other females went back into the house where it was discovered that the eight-year-old girl had also been raped.

By then, the men had left.

With no cellphone to call anyone for help, the woman said they remained at home cowering in fear, uncertain whether the rapists were still lurking around.

But daylight was nowhere near and her daughter needed immediatemedical attention.

“I was willing to take a gunshot but I didn’t want my daughter to bleed to death on me,” she said.

And so the mother said she and her sister decided to run to their neighbour’s house to get help.

In the meantime, the woman says her daughter has expressed that she does not want to remain in Jamaica.

“My daughter’s youth has been taken from her,” said the grieving mother, before breaking down.

Between sobs, she said her daughter has told her it would have been better had the men broken her arms.

“I want to ask them why!” she muttered. “I just want a minute with him. I have to ask him why!”

Meanwhile, the police say detectives from the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, along with their counterparts in St James, will today interview the main suspect in the case.

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