By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis said yesterday it is time for the country to “get on top” of violence and abuse in all forms, following a recent Supreme Court ruling on a divorce case involving a woman who said she felt like a “rape victim” in her marriage.

The ruling was handed down by Justice J Denise Lewis-Johnson on August 29 and centres around a woman’s divorce petition in which she sought to end her marriage on the grounds of cruel treatment.

The woman claimed her husband would force intercourse and made her feel like a “rape victim” throughout their marriage.

While ruling that the husband was cruel for forcing his wife to have sex against her will on numerous occasions, it was found that “there is no rape in marriage” under Bahamian law.

Yesterday, Mr Davis was asked to comment on the judgement and renewed calls for his government to address the issue of marital rape.

 “I don’t quite follow that ruling,” the prime minister responded. “First of all, violence is violence. I don’t like describing rape at all. I think marital is descriptive that that detracts from the substance of what rape is all about.

 “Rape is a violation of someone’s body without their consent.”

 The prime minister then later said he found the ruling curious since rape is physical abuse, which could be used as a ground for divorce.

 He added: “It’s curious that the judge can say that a woman who claims that she was raped by a husband cannot use that as a ground for divorce when physical abuse could be and rape is physical abuse.”

 Mr Davis has previously said that addressing the issue of marital rape is not a priority item for his administration.

 Social Services Minister Obie Wilchcombe recently acknowledged that while the matter is not a major focus for the government, it is something they will have to deal with eventually.

 This comes as Mr Wilchcombe prepares to meet with church leaders this month to discuss the controversial topic.

 Asked yesterday if he supported Mr Wilchcombe’s comments, the prime minister replied that it was time for the country to get on top of violence and abuse in all forms.

 “It’s time to get on top of violence and abuse in all its forms,” Mr Davis said. “It’s become too prevalent in our society. We’re becoming too anti-social, relationships are being stretched by reasons of egos and personalities and all the external issues that impact relationships.

 “And we need to be able to address those by getting to the root causes of why people act in the way they do. We need to speak to and again, the challenges that we are facing, the societal issues that we face to drive people to do things.

  “We have to get to those. We need to talk to our young men, talk to our young women and talk to our people about what is right and wrong. Civility has to be returned to our society.”

 Last week, police officials revealed statistics showing a rise in reported rapes.

 Between January 1 and August 23, there were 51 reported rape incidents, up three from the 48 incidents that were recorded for the entire year of 2021.

 Police said they have also recorded 69 cases of indecent assault, 10 reported incidents of incest and more than 60 cases of unlawful sexual intercourse so far for the year.

 While commenting on the statistics yesterday, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said it is time for people to understand that “you don’t fool with little children and that you don’t force yourself on people period.”

 Mr Munroe added: “So, we encourage everyone to stop this behaviour. The police are taking a focused approach on it and, as I say, we encourage everyone to co-operate with them in this effort.”