News
February 26, 2010
Police officer frustrated over constant harassment

A police officer’s job is to uphold law and order, as well as protect citizens, but who protects that officer when he needs help?{{more}}

This is the question being asked by a member of the Royal St.Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, who believes that he has exhausted all legal channels available in getting his ex-lover and the mother of his daughter to stop harassing him.

The officer told SEARCHLIGHT that since December 2007 when he broke the relationship off with the woman, she has constantly harassed, slandered, and issued threats against him, with the most recent being Sunday, February 21, 2010, when she stormed into his yard.

The young man claims he has sought the help of the Family Court, his lawyer, as well as the police, but all to no avail.

At the Family Court, the Protection Order he applied for was turned down because he did not have a domestic (live-in) relationship with the woman and the order is only granted in such an instance.

Secondly, the various levels at which he sought help in the Police Force proved futile.

“I am totally tired. I don’t know what next to do,” said the officer, who appeared quite frustrated and helpless when he visited SEARCHLIGHT.

“It’s affecting my relationship with my co-workers, as well as my reputation,” said the officer.

The frustrated man explained all was well in the relationship, but in 2007, shortly after he found out his ex-lover was pregnant, he caught her attempting to hide her cellular phone as he was about to enter the bedroom.

“I searched the phone and saw a message stating ‘The boy dey by me not to come or call me’,” he recounted, adding that the young woman when quizzed about her actions, said the message was for a family member.

Some time after that incident, the officer said someone told him she was having a relationship with another police officer. He then started hearing reports that she was making claims that he was not the father of her child.

The young man told SEARCHLIGHT that added to everything that was happening, he received a telephone call from a male who cursed several expletives and told him to stay away from his woman.

“I told her until the child is born and we do a paternity test, I am cutting all ties with her,” the young man recalled, noting that by December 30, 2007, she started threatening him.

In December 2008, the paternity test was done and the young man was identified as the father of the child.

Since then, he has been paying maintenance for the toddler and presented SEARCHLIGHT with receipts to prove this.

He said although the court stipulated that he should have a visiting relationship with the child, this was denied by the mother who usually granted him only 10 minutes with his daughter whenever he wanted to see her.

Even though she had set the visitation time, he said she started complaining that he was spending insufficient time with the child and to improve the situation, he should sleep in a vacant room at her home.

Having failed to move into the home she was renting, the young man said the problems increased.

He noted that he is being accused by the young woman of trying to molest his daughter, as well as being gay.

He pointed out she went as far as making these allegations on a radio programme.

The young man also showed SEARCHLIGHT print outs of  several email messages from the woman in which threats were made to him.

The officer is hoping that someone in authority will hear his plea for help and assist him in bringing an end to the situation.