By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are warning women to be “extra careful and vigilant” after a recent “spike” in the number of reported rapes in New Providence.

Supt Paul Rolle, Officer in Charge of the Central Detective Unit, said police are not sure what caused the increase in reported rapes. However, they are very concerned about the frequency of the sexual assaults.

He said police suspect that different people are the rapists. The incidents have occurred in different areas across New Providence.

His comments came after four women were raped in the past three weeks, two women while walking and two while driving in their vehicles.

Last night in the House of Assembly, Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin also warned women to be “vigilant, careful and to utilise strength in numbers when travelling at night.”

“We are always concerned about rapes and we have no idea why these worthless culprits are taking advantage of females like that. We do not think these are the same people committing these acts,” Supt Rolle said.

“We have had an increase in sexual assaults recently and yes there seems to be a little spike in these incidents. I think we have had one every weekend in the past three weeks with two this weekend. However, they seem to be sporadic and there is nothing to suggest the matters are related. We want the public, women and men to be vigilant and keep their car doors locked as you move about.

“For persons who have to walk because we know not everyone has a car, pay attention to your surroundings at all times. We know folks have to catch the bus and walk through side corners and short cuts, but we want to ask the public, especially women, to be aware as they move about.”

On Sunday, a woman motorist was raped in the Carmichael Road area.

The woman was sexually assaulted at a track road off Bacardi Road after a man jumped into the back seat of her car and held “an object” to her head sometime around 1:40am, police reported.

According to police, the man got into the car as she stopped to allow another vehicle to exit in the area of a service station.

The man ordered her to drive to a track road off Bacardi Road, where he raped her.

According to the police, the victim was then forced to drive the man to Yellow Elder Gardens, where he got out of the vehicle.

Last week police reported that another woman motorist was held up and sexually assaulted by men driving a stolen taxi van. At the time it was reported that there were four men in the van.

According to police, the woman was driving on Mackey Street in a black Honda vehicle around 6am, when a man armed with a handgun, robbed her of her car and forced her into a silver coloured Toyota Hiace taxi van, which had been stolen about an hour earlier, and which was occupied by three other men. The men then drove off with the victim and forced her to have oral sex with them, police said. The woman escaped from the men in the Blue Hill Heights area.

A few days before that incident police said a woman was walking on St James Road around 2am when a man armed with a handgun forced her into nearby bushes and sexually assaulted her. The suspect then fled in a white Honda civic vehicle.

According to Supt Rolle, police have arrested two men, ages 21 and 23, in connection with that assault.

Anyone with information on any of these incidents is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.