On Monday, the rape trial of Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy began with the prosecution laying out horrific details regarding the ten charges against the 28-year-old French citizen. Specifically, the prosecutor addressed the power dynamics that led to the eight rapes the affluent footballer has been charged with, along with one attempted rape and one sexual assault. According to a BBC report, Mr Mendy was profiled as a “predator” who “turned the pursuit of women for sex into a game”, treated women as “disposable” and whose “wealth and status” meant “others were prepared to help him to get what he wanted”.

His co-defendant and friend, Louis Saha Matturie, 41, who has been charged with six counts of rape and one of sexual assault was fingered as the fixer who procured unwitting women for Mr Mendy’s debauched activities. According to the allegations, at least seven of the rapes took place at Mr Mendy’s secluded home, where young women were invited to parties and either assaulted while they were drunk, or locked in rooms and attacked. Two women said they were raped by both men. Manchester City acquired Mr Mendy’s services in the summer of 2017. The first rape was alleged to have been committed in October 2018 and the last in August 2021, which was when Mr Mendy was charged. Both men have denied the charges, claiming that in every case either the sex was consensual or did not occur.

In June this year, Bruxy Cavey, former pastor of The Meeting House, one of Canada’s largest megachurches, was arrested and charged following a police investigation into sexual assault. Mr Cavey had been sent on leave last year after the church received reports of sexual misconduct against him and began an investigation.

He was asked to resign in March when that probe revealed he had been involved in a longstanding extramarital affair with a church member. Expressing mea culpas, he admitted to the affair, but chose not to divulge that there were others. By the time he was charged in June, there were three allegations against him. According to the CBC, the police said they believed there were more victims and were urging them to come forward. On Monday this week, the church divulged that one of the allegations involved a minor.

Unfortunately, as awful as both of these cases are, they are but two in an unending cycle of sexual abuse of women, who are objectified, seen as lesser than, weaker than, expendable, possessions and made to be dominated. Even more sad is the fact that very often, society’s knee-jerk reaction to a woman being raped is to question the woman: her morals, her behaviour, her clothing choices, her job, the places she frequents and the list goes on. Because it is sexual, people seem not to realise, or they forget, that rape is mostly about power and having control over another person and in so doing, demeaning that person.

Along with the sexual violation, the stigma attached to rape includes society’s questioning, blaming and shaming of victims. This plays into the deviance of men who choose to assault and degrade the women and girls they come into contact with. The knowledge that people, often their own families and friends, will automatically see these women as bad or tainted or might not believe them, emboldens the rapist. This is the case even in those societies where women and girls receive validation and commiseration for speaking out and the pursuit of justice for them is not only sincere, but swift. Imagine the ongoing trauma in places like Guyana where there is little to no empathy, but instead there is blacklisting of the victims because ‘they ought to have known better’.

Early this month, allegations were made that a local social media personality had sexually assaulted a number of women and knowingly spread one or more sexually transmitted infections. There was a firestorm on Facebook, a lot of outrage that there was no immediate condemnation from all of his friends and followers and push back from some of the man’s clique defending their lack of action.

When the dust settled, a few individuals and organisations had publicly disassociated themselves from the accused and he had gone to ground, closing his Facebook page. None of the women he allegedly violated have made a police report to date. Earlier this week, women’s rights organisation Red Thread appealed to the women to file reports with the police and to approach the organisation, which is prepared to offer support and advice throughout the process.

Sadly, it is unlikely that the victims will come forward, even if they do choose to take Red Thread up on its offer of support. There are several reasons why this is the case, but foremost among them would be the fact that the average Guyanese lacks confidence in the police’s ability to conduct proper investigations and ensure they receive justice. No one who is violated should have to relive the experience over and over and not receive justice at the end, yet this happens far too often.

While given the size of our population, protecting a victim’s anonymity can be difficult, it is often the case that raped women are outed simply because it’s salacious to do so. There is a shocking lack of professional ethics and human compassion in some police officers and victims are therefore further traumatised when their personal information is shared, whether deliberately or inadvertently.

Women should not have to weigh gaining a stain on their character against reporting a horrific crime, but they do. Reporting being violated should not come at a cost, but it does. The #MeToo movement, which was founded in the US in 2006, now has worldwide prominence. It gives survivors of sexual violence a voice which many are using in an effort to change the patriarchal culture that allows predators to thrive. So far in Guyana it is but a murmur. A lot more needs to change to make it louder, including the way we think.