Face to face

IS IT ME? That is what rape accused Derick Crawford, 48, asked Rachel Turner, 30 (left), and Diane Davies, 63, when he met them for the first time yesterday at the Holetown Magistrates’ Court. The two women are in Barbados to testify that Crawford was not the man who raped them.

British actress Hillary Heath, herself a rape victim, had a heart-to-heart talk with rape accused Derick Crawford yesterday on the compound of the Holetown Magistrates’ Court. Heath, who was very critical of police investigations in her matter is here to lend moral support to her fellow British citizens and is paying the legal fees for Crawford’s defence. (Pictures by Maria Bradshaw.)

By Maria Bradshaw | Wed, November 21, 2012 - 12:11 AM

Emotions ran high yesterday when accused Derick Crawford came face to face for the first time with the two British women he is accused of raping.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been an angry confrontation but the threesome almost embraced each other.

Rachel Turner, 30, and Diane Davies, 63, were at the Holetown Magistrates’ Court to take the witness stand to declare that Crawford, 48, was not the man who raped them on separate occasions in October 2010.

The two women, along with British actress Hillary Heath, who was also raped while on holiday in Barbados in 2004, are providing the funds for attorney at law Andrew Pilgrim to represent Crawford.

The case, however, was adjourned until Friday because there was no sitting of the court. Also on hand was British High Commissioner Paul Brummell.

Despite the sentiments expressed by the women that police charged Crawford to protect Barbados’ tourism image, Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin maintained yesterday that the “team of investigators who were tasked with investigating these assaults are firmly of the view that the evidence strongly supports the decision to arrest and charge Mr Crawford”.

Please read the full story in today’s MIDWEEK NATION, or in the eNATION edition.

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Posted by Kenneth King 6 months ago: This is really a case of unprofessional and embarrassing missed information of this case, why would the commissioner hold out on evidence if these women publicly denied that Mr. Crawford was not the man that raped them. After such humiliation of his faced being shown in every major News outlet what compensation will be awarded to him for this.
If we are going to these lengths to accuse a person, then it can only be fair to compensate him for this embarrassment. There is enough technology today with sperm detection and if it's found that both matches are detected then we must find out why and under what grounds for this scandal.

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Posted by Carl Harper 6 months ago: Mr Crawford, even with the attempt by these women to clear your name, society may forever still judge you harshly for a crime - rape - that you did not commit.

If Crawford is released, this case gives rise to men accused accused of rape to be offered the same protection as female rape victims for their names and pictures not to be splashed across the newspapers.

He would be an innocent man.