PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic--A Toronto-area woman says she is going public to warn travellers, after a security guard at a Dominican Republic resort raped her and the hotel “did nothing” to investigate – an occurrence she believes is all too common.
Christine Dayman (44) and her family were staying at the Grand Bahia Principe Turquesa resort in Punta Cana two months ago.
It was the third time the music teacher had travelled to the all-inclusive Dominican resort with her two sons and her aging parents.
“I have never had any notion of lack of safety,” she says. “It’s guarded. It’s gated. It feels completely safe.”
On the night of March 16, as she was walking to her room alone, she says a resort security guard approached her without speaking – she believed he was escorting her to her room.
Instead, she says, he shoved her against a wall at the top of a stairwell, lifted her dress and forced himself on her.
“He pounced on me,” says Dayman. “I was in such shock … I couldn’t process what was going on. I was completely stunned, and I froze.”
After the security guard ran off, Dayman says she ran to her room and called a friend back in Toronto, in hysterics. The friend suggested Dayman report the attack at the front desk early the next morning – when she felt it was safe to leave her room.
“No one called the police. No one offered to show me pictures to identify the security guard. I wasn’t offered medical attention … The only thing they offered me was late checkout.”
Dayman and her family returned to Toronto later that day as scheduled. ~ Caribbean News Service ~
