-Justice for a Rapist

by Anika

On March 19, 2011, Akeem Gumbs who was then 21-year-old was charged with raping and sodomizing an 8-year-old girl about 25 times from 2009 to 2011. He also was filming her for sexual exploitation. His trial was set for to begin January 25, 2012, and the outlook doesn’t look too good for him.

This article in the January 13, 2012 issue of the Daily News upsets me because of how many times he had hurt and scared her. A young girl should not have to hide and be scared; she should be able to play, run around, and not have a care in the world as to what’s going on.

As I read this article to my mother, she was very disturbed about the whole situation. She could not wrap her mind around the fact that this little girl had been raped, filmed, hurt, and scared for so long. She also had a lot of questions as to why did this fling went on for so long, and where her parents were in all of this.

“The federal grand jury in June indicted Gumbs of 31 charges: five counts of producing child pornography between January 24 and July 23, 2010; possessing child pornography; and 25 counts of first-degree aggravated rape between October 2009 and February. Production of child pornography carries a minimum 15-year prison sentence per count,” according to Michael Todd of the Daily News.

I don’t really have any sympathy towards Gumbs, so whatever time he serves will be fine by me. Someone who does this to a little girl deserves all the jail time he can get and more. He should not have taken things as far as he did. It was only a matter of time before this would come back on him.

This article is not like any other article; it actually makes me stop and ask questions. For instance, how did he get to rape her? What made her stay quiet all this time?

After reading this article I noticed it didn’t say much about the girl. I would have loved to hear more about how she is feeling, or why she took so long to speak up. There are so many question, yet so few answers.

If you have read this article, I would advise you to stay updated as to what is happening during the trial.

I would like for you to take action. Do whatever you have to do to have some type of justice on our islands when our youth are endangered.