This week, The Huntsville Forester brings you a powerful story; a story about hope, survival and the refusal to remain a victim.
It’s a story about a woman who was brutally attacked and raped on the Hunters Bay trail five years ago. Her assailant was about three decades younger – a 17-year-old punk.
She was probed, examined and had to take anti AIDS and STD drugs – all from simply going for a walk with her dog on a trail in her – our – community.
We covered the story when the heinous crime took place, and we were angry. We could not understand what sort of twisted individual would commit such a crime, so we followed him every time he appeared in court, we called for him to be tried as an adult and, five years later, he will be free to roam the streets of our community once more.
Justice is complex, and forgiveness a very powerful emotion. Our judicial system has determined that after five years, the rapist has served his time and should be released. That’s the way our judicial system works. But we’re apprehensive, apprehensive that this attacker might still be the same monster he was five years ago, and that he’ll re-offend. But we’re a small and tight-knit community and, if he chooses to stay, we’ll be watching. The onus will be on him to prove that he is fit to walk among us, and although his victim has forgiven him, we find that difficult to do. We blame him for making us look over our shoulder every time we walk a beautiful trail on our own, and we blame him for shattering the notion that our community does not create people who would commit such a crime.
This story, as well as the murder trial of Samantha Collins in Bracebridge, ought to shake all our readers out of complacency. Violence against women is real, and it is unacceptable. It happens much too often, sometimes behind closed doors, and right under our noses. For the sake of our mothers, sisters, aunts, sons, fathers and brothers – gender-based violence of any sort needs to stop.
Take a moment tomorrow, during the One Billion Rising movement happening across the world, and join others to think about what this violence is doing to our loved ones and our community. Seek counselling, whether you are the victim or the perpetrator, and make it stop. We owe it to people like Jane, whose remarkable story and willingness to encourage others who have been through similar circumstances, prove that light can and should prevail over the dark and vicious cycle of violence.
T.d.V.