CRIMINALS attempted to break into the police forensic laboratory Monday night, allegedly in a bid to recovery the gun of slain Spanish Town gang leader, Donovan ‘Bulbie’ Bennett.

But yesterday police chief Lucius Thomas played down the incident, although he could neither deny nor confirm that a woman constable was raped at the scene.

“They have not broken into the forensics lab,” Thomas told the Observer yesterday. “There is a report that two men went to the gate and demanded the keys to the lab. The keys were not forthcoming, and so they left.”

However, employees at the lab were clearly agitated by the incident yesterday. Up to late afternoon they seemed to be involved in a staff meeting and turned away police officers who took specimen to the Hope Boulevard, St Andrew lab, to do testing.

And despite Thomas’ comment, while he awaited the outcome of an investigation into the incident, other police sources insisted that there was a rape. There were suggestions of a cover-up.

“The constable was raped and seen at the Rape Unit by an inspector,” one police source told the Observer. “Another inspector took her home shortly after midday. I don’t know why they’re unwilling to talk about it.”

According to Observer sources, the two men, ostensibly members of Bennett’s Clansman gang, turned up at the forensic lab at about 3:30 yesterday morning, demanding the keys to the facility from police stationed at the gate.

When the key was not forthcoming a female constable was taken away and raped, the source said. It was not clear what happened to her male colleague.

Yesterday afternoon it was obvious at the lab that there had been more than a polite request for the keys to the facility that had been similarly rebuffed.

Superintendent F Hibbert, head of the department, repeatedly dodged inquiries. He chased reporters away and slipped into the building.

Female members of staff peered warily through the heavily-grilled glass louvre windows, covering their faces as they left the facility at the end of the work day.

No one from the lab was available to comment because all employees were locked in a meeting discussing the incident. That meeting was in progress for more than three hours, during which time, no forensics work was done.

Officers who brought in specimens were turned away, much to the ire of some.

“What am I going to do with this? It is not ganja, or a gunshot or a bullet!,” declared a female constable who had brought DNA samples for testing. “I cannot keep it at my house.”

That sample, taken from a slain youth earlier that day, needed to be delivered immediately to prevent contamination, the officer said.

“We have been here for over two hours, and nothing,” another policewoman complained. “I sympathise with what gwaan here, but we have our thing to deal with.”

She eventually left the compound, taking with her whatever sample she had brought for testing.

The forensic lab is where all forensic evidence from crime scenes collected by the police is examined and processed. Ballistic tests are also done there.

Located on the periphery of Hope Gardens, the lab is housed in a lonely two-storey concrete building with glass windows set away from the road – Hope Boulevard – and encircled by a simple chain-link fence. The grounds in front of the lab is overgrown.

The yard, apart from those who came to do business, was yesterday populated by three bulls, a donkey and several birds. There is a police security post, located several metres away from the actual building.

The Matilda’s Corner police are investigating the incident.