PRISON authorities were yesterday accused of “unacceptable negligence” by locking a 50-year-old convicted rapist in a cell with a 19-year-old who claimed later he was sexually assaulted under threat by the older man.
In her report on the incident, published yesterday, Ombudswoman Eliza Savidou said prison authorities had shown “unjustifiable and unacceptable negligence” and had later acted in a manner, which contributed to covering up events.
The damning report follows the Ombudswoman’s investigation into the youth’s claim that he had been raped under the threat of a blade in December last year.
The prison administration has argued there is no case to answer. Savvidou stressed that it was not the object of her report to determine whether the 19-year-old had been raped or to assign criminal responsibility – a matter currently being investigated by police.
She said her report focused on identifying the prison department’s omissions before and after the alleged incident.
“Specifically, the prison department’s decision to move a convicted rapist – who displays a clear tendency to commit offences of a sexual nature — to the youth wing, constitutes an incomprehensible, unacceptable and illegal act,” Savvidou said. “It emerges with certainty that on the night of December 14 the two prisoners remained locked in the youth’s cell from 9pm until around 1.30am.”
According to the report, the convicted rapist had been in the wing for over a month before the alleged incident.
“As regards the events that followed the incident under investigation, I regret to observe that I see a series of actions that not only didn’t contribute to the thorough investigation of the matter … but they served in covering up everything that unfolded that night,” Savvidou said.
The prison department’s handling of the matter show, to say the least, “unjustifiable negligence and delay in carrying out an immediate and thorough investigation into the possibility of rape … despite it being certain that the matter concerned the prison department and was widely discussed among prisoners,” the report said.
In fact, in her interim report on the matter, which was also published yesterday, Savvidou said “the prison department’s stance seems to have been intentionally misleading from the onset.”
In his written statement, the youth said that on the night in question he saw the 50-year-old chat with the warden on duty before joining him in his cell.
Shortly afterwards, the warden locked the cells in the wing without asking anything, the youth said.
According to the report, the youth informed the 50-year-old that this was prohibited, but he was told that he got the warden’s permission.
Initially the two watched television together, but later the older convict started pressing him to have sex.
The youth said he refused and the 50-year-old pulled out a blade and pinned him down. When the shift changed at around 2am, the 50-year-old rang the bell for the warden to open the cell.
The convict told the warden that he was in the wrong cell and wanted to return to his own. The warden notified a superior who instructed that the two prisoners be taken to ‘Special Eight’ as the isolation is known.
The youth said he was kept in isolation for four days, enduring the taunts of other prisoners who had heard talks of the rape, the report said.
The 50-year-old claimed he fell asleep while watching television and was sleeping until the moment he called the warden.
The warden denied knowing the 50-year-old’s intention to remain in the youth’s cell to watch television and agreeing to be notified later to move him back to his cell.
But it transpired that the warden locked the cells in the youth wing without checking that prisoners were in their own cells.
To date, no one has been disciplined for the omission.
The day after the alleged incident, the youth was referred to the prison doctor but he refused to be examined and did not tell her what had happened “because he was very scared and ashamed.”
But he had not been asked whether he wanted to be examined by specialist outside the prison, the report said.
The young prisoner claimed that he did not tell the truth to the prison officer looking into the matter “because he does not trust the prison staff and was scared of the consequences.”
Following the alleged incident, prison authorities moved 16 prisoners over the age of 21, from the youth wing to other wings.
The 16 included people doing up to eight years in jail for drugs possession and armed robbery. According to rules, prisoners up to 21-years-old live separately in a special wing – if existing facilities allow.
The report also cites the prison doctor, who among others, failed to log the youth’s visit. “Furthermore, I am especially concerned by the fact that the young prisoner was not immediately referred to the general hospital considering that the apparent purpose of his visit was to determine whether he had been the victim of rape and the necessary medical tests could not be done in the prison clinic,” the report said.
