A former Deputy Permanent Secretary at Gambia’s Foreign Ministry has admitted having sexual intercourse with one of his rape accusers, but he had vehemently denied raping her, including the other ladies, Freedom Newspaper can report. “I had sex with one of the ladies, who accused me, of rape, but I never rape her. The sex that I had with her was consensual. It was a consensual sex. I never rape her,” Melvin Roberts tells Freedom Radio Gambia’s prime time Leral show on Sunday.
“Yes, I did, because I had a sexual relation with the first complainant. I was in a relationship with the first complainant for years. So, yes, I did. Absolutely consensual, I do not involve myself in anything that wouldn’t be consensual, and this is the reason why I denied the allegations from the word go,” Roberts added.
The local Standard Newspaper in The Gambia, had earlier reported that there was a bench warrant issued for Roberts’ arrest. This followed, Roberts’ graduation from the UK based Oxford University. Four Gambian women had accused him of rape; he denied the allegations.
The Standard publication had never deterred Roberts from visiting his native country, The Gambia. Roberts had spent Easter in The Gambia. He was never arrested by the police, despite claims that he was a wanted rape suspect.
Roberts told Freedom Radio that he never raped the four ladies. “It was two of the complainants that actually filed the complaint of rape. So, it wasn’t all four complaints that actually said that I raped them. Two of them said that I attempted to rape them,” he said, adding that the accusations were not only false, but totally unfounded.
Roberts said he had availed himself to The Gambian police during his one month visit to The Gambia. He added that he is not a fugitive and had not committed any crime that should warrant him to run away from his home country.
Roberts said the police investigative report on the matter, had exonerated him. He says he had no case to answer.
“Whether the police investigative report has exonerated me, or not, but what I do know is, I travelled to The Gambia, I subjected myself, to the authority of the police, and what the police said to me, and not said to me alone, and in the presence of my lawyer, was that there was nothing before them by way of facts or evidences to allow them to charge me of any of the alleged offence. So, of course, invariably that is exoneration. It means I have been exonerated of the alleged complaint and offences. I was never charged when I was in The Gambia, so, what would be interesting to me, is to see the legalities surrounding me, being charged in absentia in a criminal matter,” he remarked.
Gambia’s Solicitor General Cherno Marenah this past week, told the Standard Newspaper, that the police investigative report alone, wouldn’t determine the outcome of Melvin’s case. Roberts is concerned about the SG’s remarks.
“I am a bid perturbed, worried and confused as to what would be the basis for prosecution because the basis for prosecution in any jurisdiction in the world, especially a criminal matter, would be the investigations that has been conducted by the institution that is seize for doing such investigation. And if now the Solicitor General is saying that the progress of the case, of the matter, is not determined by the investigation report, is something I have never heard though; I do not know,” he said.
When asked whether it was correct for anyone to paint him as a sexual predator, Roberts in response said: “It cannot be accurate; that is the most unfortunate statement that I could ever hear, or that would be meted out against me, or referred to me, it does not make sense, it does not hold water, it is not justifiable, it cannot be substantiated in anyway or shape, or form. So, it would be somebody making such a statement in oblivion because on what basis would that statement be made. What is the factual and evidential proof to back such a statement? Everybody could make a statement. I have heard so many statements from different individual, including yourself, it does not determine you, it does not reflect on who you are as a person. The people that like me, if you go on my Facebook, some people that liked me, have had those positive comments about me, so, somebody making that sort of comment about me, is of no consequences, it has no basis, no bearing because it has not been advanced, it is not been substantiated in any way, shape or form; so, what it is, it remains a statement from a detractor.”
Roberts has regretted putting his wife and family in such a baseless sexual scandal. He says he had regretted mingling with the wrong women.
Asked whether his wife, was mad at him, hear Roberts: “My wife is not mad at me, because my wife, know who I am. My wife really had a relationship with me, before we married. It wasn’t an arraigned marriage. It didn’t drop down from the sky. So, yes, of course, she will be disappointed; of course, she will be upset. Pa, definitely to be honest with you, when I look back and I have try to actually look back at everything that is happened, I have some regrets; what as a regret, some of these people, I never should have mingled with, because I mingle with the wrong people, the wrong individual, that is why I am in this mess. So, in retrospect, I should not have had no business mingling with such characters and that is exactly how my life feels. My wife is disappointed.”
Roberts said he is a lone man, fighting against false accusations that were brought against him by the four women. He doesn’t think that he had the necessary public support that would come to his rescue.
Further quizzed as to whether he felt being a victim of public marginalization because of his Aku minority ethnicity, Roberts had this to say: “I don’t know if it is because of my ethnicity, but what I do know, If I was from a very tribe, let’s say I, was Mandinka, or I was Wollof, and I have people, relatives in high places, I have people that would come out and give people word for word; fight back, defend me, I don’t think it would have gotten to this. But what had happened was that I was this lone ranger, I had nobody to support me, I had the people, who would talk to me, quietly. I had one, or two, or three people, at least maximum, I would say five people, that would publicly go out there; because what was happening if anybody questions anything or tries to look at the veracity of these stories, they were attacked; they were called rape apologists; they were told but this could have happened to your mother, this could have happened to your daughter, this could have happened to your wife, but what they have forgotten is, it could have happened to your brother, it could happen to your son, it could happen to your father. So, I did not have all that; I did not have that support base; I did not have activists, who are standing up for me, I did not have that. So, whether that is attributable to my ethnic background, maybe, I don’t know.”
Roberts thinks that he is being falsely accused by his accusers. Though, he doesn’t know why the four ladies were going after him.
“I don’t know because I don’t think of individuals. Lets talk a look at all these accusations; there is a saying, I think it is a Wollof saying but it would translate to some like: when you have your dead meat and you want to sell your dead meat, what do you do Pa? You mix the dead meat with fresh meat; that is what you do, you mix your rotten meat with fresh meat in order to attract a buyer. We have a situation in The Gambia, whereby, all over the world, you having this “me too movement” springing up, who was the better catch? Did you realize Pa, that after all these allegations, I think there was a taxi driver, who was alleged to have been violently attacking somebody, attacking people and raping them. Did it makes the social media rounds like I did?” he asked.
Roberts couldn’t understand as to why his case is attracting such a public interest. He felt being targeted because of his achievements in life.
“Why is my case so special? That is the million dollars question. It is obvious that the agenda on the table is to make a statement to the me too movement in The Gambia, and who is the better scapegoat, the Melvin Robertson Roberts, the youngest Deputy Permanent Secretary, in the history of The Gambia, a lawyer, a graduate from Oxford. Who is the better candidate? Do you know how many innocent Gambians are being raped and sexually abused daily? Who is talking about that? Where are the activists in that time? Where are they?,” he asked.
The post GAMBIA: BREAKING NEWS: I HAD SEX WITH ONE OF THE LADIES, WHO ACCUSED ME, OF RAPE, BUT I NEVER RAPE HER-MELVIN ROBERTS; AS HE DENIES BEING A SEXUAL PREDATOR! appeared first on Freedom Newspaper.