SAN IGNACIO TOWN, Tues. Dec. 29, 2015–A police officer who allegedly raped a woman who was detained in a holding cell at the San Ignacio Police Station was arrested and charged with rape.
Police said in a press release dated Monday, December 21, that Constable Luke Moriera removed the detained woman from the cell, took her into a dark room in the station and raped her.
Constable Moriera was taken to the San Ignacio Magistrate’s Court today, Tuesday, and was arraigned on the charge. He was not offered bail and was remanded to the Belize Central Prison until January 19, 2016.
Normally, the name of a rape victim is not published because of privacy considerations, but the victim, Vanessa Evans, 25, of Bullet Tree, Cayo District, came forward on 7News and reported that early that Sunday morning, while in custody at the police station for fighting with her boyfriend in a domestic dispute, the policeman opened the cell and ordered her to come out of the cell and to go to the back with him, and showed her his firearm.
The “Police Officer for the Month of November” allegedly raped a female detainee – in the police station, of all places!
She began to walk to the area, with him showing her the gun on his side. She said that when she reached the area, he told her that she was going to get what she deserved, because she kept beating her man.
She said she tried to tell him that what happened between her and her boyfriend was none of his business, but he replied that “his private” loved her. She then told him that she was going to report him.
Evans told 7News that when she told him that she was going to report him, he said that he had done it before and had gotten away with it, and that he would do it again and get away again, and that was when he began to rape her, and she began to cry.
She said that she got a good look at him during the rape, and got his badge number and she knows and recognizes him.
After the ordeal, he took her back, and she told a police officer what had happened, and Moreira was detained.
Evans said that she made an official report at about 6:00 that same Sunday morning, but police began dragging their feet in an attempt at a cover-up. They came for her at about 1:00 Monday afternoon and she identified him twice in an identification parade.
Evans said that she is the mother of two children and she is very scared for her life, and she is even afraid of sleeping.
However, she and her boyfriend decided to come forward to tell the nation that she had been raped by police while detained at the police station, and that is what she did.
Constable Luke Moriera was declared the Police Officer for the Month of November for being of exemplary conduct and for going beyond the call of duty, and for displaying courage and bravery.
The award was presented to him on Friday afternoon, November 27, during a ceremony at the San Ignacio Police Station compound.