Emmanuel Quist
Ghana’s social media space has seen series of rape controversies involving high-profile personalities in the past few months, mainly instigated by the wave of women gathering up courage to speak up about their rape ordeals, sparking #Metoo , #Dearsurvivor, #Herapedme campaigns in South Africa, U.S, Ghana and other parts of the world.
The latest alleged case of rape that has taken social media by storm involves the Chief Executive Officer of Caveman Watches, a budding international luxury watch brand and a young lady known on Facebook as Mary Brittle .
Mary, on the 11th of September, 2019 took to her social media page to reveal a facebook DM conversation with a friend detailing the buildup to and the alleged rape incident purported to have occurred in Anthony’s house at East Legon.
According to the thread of conversation, Mary and Anthony went to the movies on their first outing, judging from the conversation, an uneventful one.
They kept in touch and after a few days, went on the second date which was at the poolside at Mensvic Hotel at East Legon. That was when the narrative appeared to change allegedly.
The young lady purports that everything looked fine and they actually had fun swimming until she began to have abdominal pains. They went to a nearby pharmacy to get some medication for the pains. She waited in the car while he went in to get the medicine, which she immediately took in the hopes of alleviating the pain that was fast becoming unbearable. However, she reportedly got even weaker after taking the medicine, at which point she asked Anthony to take her to his house which was close by so she can rest a bit and later go home, a request to which he agreed.
Upon reaching his home, the victim says her phone died as the lights were out. She laid on a couch, while Anthony went to shower. He returned from the shower and began to touch the young lady who asked him to stop, according to her Facebook chat. The alleged pep would allegedly stop briefly and start touching her again, at which point she is too weak to stop him, she tries anyway but fails woefully as he proceeds to hike her long dress up, turns her around and rapes her, allegedly. All her pleas for him to stop falls on deaf ears and the ordeal continues until he is satisfied, she narrates.
Just when she thought that the nightmare was over, Anthony goes to the shower a second time, comes back and rapes her again, allegedly. This time, when he was done, the power comes back on, she is able to charge her phone and orders an ubber.
She then opens up to an anonymous friend in a facebook chat about what ensued which she later posted on the women’s help group, Dear Survivor.
The story has since gone viral on popular Facebook groups, sparking debates as to the veracity of the claims being made by Mary. While some vilely say she deserves every bit of what happened to her for going out with a stranger and proceeding to his home, others have asked to prove that she didn’t consent to the sexual encounter.
Mary has since leaked alleged WhatsApp conversations in which someone named Caveman is begging her to take down the posts as they address what he describes as a misunderstanding.
The story has since drawn diverse reactions from individuals on social media, with people who know the CEO of Caveman directly or indirectly refuting the claims on the basis that he has a calm and decent demeanor- A gentleman. While others rebut that a person’s external disposition or demeanor does rule them out as rapists.
To which Mary Brittle reacted with an emotional outpour on her facebook page on Thursday:
While none of the claims, in this case, can be readily confirmed, it is clear that more and more women are having to cope with sexual harassment, rape and defilement( in the case of children) of one form or the other from trusted male figures in their lives. And the fact that the woman is shamed, blamed and accused of having a role to play in her ordeal is keeping many women from reporting cases of rape.
