Six St Lucia men charged with rape of British women

Pair attacked by masked gang on isolated beach of Caribbean island where they were doing volunteer work Six men have been charged with the rape of two British women on the Caribbean island of St Lucia, officials said. The victims, aged 24 and 31, were attacked by a gang of masked men on an isolated stretch of Grande Anse beach, in the north-east of the country, on 10 May. They were volunteering on a wildlife conservation project run by a British-based charity and St Lucia’s ministry of agriculture when the late-night incident occurred. The suspects, who are locals but yet to be named, are due in court later this month, police said in a statement. The St Lucia government has launched an investigation to determine how they came to be alone on the isolated beach at midnight, a ministry official said. The British high commissioner, Karl Burrows, described the attack as “a dreadful crime”. He advised British visitors to exercise caution as they would anywhere else, saying that crimes against British tourists were not widespread on the island. Around 67,000 British nationals visited St Lucia last year. Foreign Office travel advice states that most visits are trouble-free but warns that there are incidents of violent crime, including murder, which tend to occur within the local community but can sometimes affect tourists. St Lucia Rape guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 19, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.