By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

POLICE yesterday disputed the claims of two American women who alleged in the international press that after they were sexually assaulted in Grand Bahama on Sunday, officers “treated them like criminals” and refused to give them rape kits.

Amber Shearer and Dongayla Dobson, passengers on a Carnival cruise ship, were on a beach at Pirates Cove in Grand Bahama when the alleged assault happened.

In interviews with a Kentucky news station and the Daily Mail, they claimed two men approached them when they arrived at the beach, offering drinks.

They believe the men worked at Pirates Cove and that their drinks were spiked.

Lex18, the Kentucky news station, reported that the women shared photos of preliminary drug tests that showed positive results for benzodiazepines, among other drugs.

“I remember waking up and getting pushed down,” Ms Dobson told the Daily Mail.

“I woke up in the resort bathroom, and there were people all around, and I just felt dirtiness on my legs, and I knew what had happened.

“They told us we had been throwing up, which is a good thing because the drugs would have killed us.”

Ms Shearer criticised the police investigation.

“We were forced to show where our rapes took place and to face the men whom raped us,” she said.

“There was an American FNP (family nurse practitioner) who tried to stay with us and was refused that right.

“We were told if we went to a Bahamian hospital, they wouldn’t help us return to the US.”

Police said in a statement last night that the women declined the assistance medical services offered them, signed a waiver and then left “for their cruise ship in a private vehicle.”

“Recognising the gravity of the incident, our officers boarded the cruise ship, providing a sexual assault kit and hospital form to the ship’s medical doctor and obtained signed statements from the victims,” the statement said.

Police said the force is collaborating closely with the FBI in the ongoing investigation and that Assistant Commissioner of Police Shanta Knowles is “personally ensuring that the investigation is conducted with the utmost level of professionalism and care.”

The Daily Mail reported that both women, who are mothers, are spending $4,000 on anti-HIV medication as a precaution while waiting for an update from Bahamian police.

Police reported on Sunday that a 54-year-old man from Eight Mile Rock and a 40-year-old male from South Bahamia were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two women on February 4.

“We recognise the seriousness of such matters and handle them with the highest level of professionalism, privacy and sensitivity,” police said yesterday.