Harold Lovell, Political Leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), is not optimistic that the woman who has accused a Cabinet member of rape will receive justice.
Instead, he says, it already appears that the Minister is being protected by the ruling Antigua Labour Party (ALP) Administration.
While the Browne Administration will quickly go after Opposition figures, Lovell says, it drags its feet when dealing with members of its own Party .
Further, he does not believe the law is being applied equally. A credible report has been made to the Police, and this has been corroborated by the Prime Minister, he notes. However, Lovell says, “We can’t hear anything.”
Had the report been made against him, any member of the UPP, or anyone associated with the Party, that person would have been picked up by now and questioned.
But, based on his own investigations, he says, no one has been detained or questioned regarding the allegations.
“This is what I do for a living. And I know that if a young woman just goes into the police station and she says, ‘John raped me. John molested me.
John interfered with me unlawfully,’ the Police get in their car, and they go right away and they find John, and they question John,” declares Lovell, an attorney at law.
“And then John is given an opportunity to say what his side of the story is; and at the end of that they will make a determination,” he adds.
Lovell also condemns the fact that no apparent move seems to have been made to pick up the Minister.
“This is something that is alleged to have taken place something like two or three weeks ago. And you have one law in Antigua for Labour Party and Labour Party people and another law for everybody else,” the UPP Political Leader says.
In some circles, the delay is being blamed on the fact that the accused is in quarantine, having returned from the United States two Thursdays ago, and the absence of protective gear for the Police.
Allegations surfaced two weeks ago that the Minister molested a 22-year-old woman on October 13.
Reportedly, the woman gave the Police an eight-page statement, inclusive of messages that she and the Cabinet member shared over several weeks via varying social-media platforms.
REAL News was told by a reliable source that it was the woman’s lawyer who advised her to report the matter to the Police since she was confused about what to do. It is said that the attorney also wrote to Cabinet members notifying them of the alleged incident.
Reports have since surfaced that at least two Cabinet members have attempted to intervene on their colleague’s behalf.
One is alleged to have made attempts to convince the woman’s family to have her drop the case, while the other reportedly told the Police that sex between the two was consensual.
Last week, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said he had discussed the allegations with the Minister, who denied them.
