EIGHT years after being abducted and assaulted at knifepoint by serial rapist Dewayne Redfin — who terrorised multiple women under the guise of being a cab driver — one of his victims says her torment has taken on a new dimension since news came in July that he will effectively spend 11 years behind bars for crimes against the five women he pleaded guilty to violating.

“I am counting down [the 11 years] because I know him a come back a road, and from the fact that him a come a road mi brain nah go rest. I am anticipating it. Nobody is pleased with the sentence he got,” the now 33-year-old young woman told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

Reflecting on the courage it took her and others to face their abductor in court each time the matter came up for mention, only for him to be sentenced in their absence, she said this was an added slap in the face.

“Nobody called; we had to be communicating between ourselves. The case officer called one of the victims and informed her of the sentencing, she called me and told me,” she pointed out.

The 37-year-old Redfin, who had been behind bars since 2017, was last month sentenced in the St Catherine Circuit Court by Supreme Court judge Justice Dale Palmer to 11 years’ imprisonment each for five counts of rape, six years each for five counts of grievous sexual assault, five years each for five counts of forcible abduction, and six years’ each on three counts of robbery with aggravation. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.

In recounting the details of the night of horror which have left her struggling with panic attacks and claustrophobia, she says her entire view of life and people has changed on account of Redfin’s actions for which she feels he has not been sufficiently punished.

She said on the night in question she had left her place of employment at Sovereign Plaza in Portmore, St Catherine, after her shift ended early.

“Usually I have a family member on the phone to accompany me. If I have service I will use WhatsApp. If I don’t have service I will send a please call and wait until I get a callback before I leave,” she said.

That night, while waiting for her partner to respond to her call request, she noticed that there were no red-plate taxis on the stretch.

“The road looked dead that night. It was not the usual. But by about 9:37 a white plate came, and for me it wasn’t unusual to see white-plate taxis that hour and so when it came down to where I was, I took it,” she said.

Some moments later, while noting vaguely that the cab driver, though blowing his horn presumably to attract passengers, had not taken anyone else onboard, she reached over to hand him her fare since she was nearing her stop.

“A few blocks down I told him I was going to ‘come out here’. He spun around, rode the banking with the car, and came to a complete stop,” she told the Sunday Observer. Thinking he had just been careless she kept the hand with the money stretched towards him while reaching for the door.

“The windows began going up. I tried to open the door but he had locked it from his side. Still thinking it was all a mistake I told him the door was locked but before I knew it, he jumped from the driver’s seat, in-between the two front seats, and came around to the back seat with a knife and a rope. When I realised, I froze. He put the knife to my side and said, ‘Don’t move, don’t look inna mi face.’ He told me to stretch out my hands, and he tied them,” she said.

After blindfolding her with her own headband her captor then took off driving again but kept one hand on her bound hands while peppering her with questions.

She said at one point he began pretending as if he had made an error, claiming that he had been sent to abduct someone dressed in full black called Keisha.

The woman, who said she was at the time dressed in navy blue, told the Sunday Observer that in a bid to negotiate with him she told him to let her go since she was not the person he was sent for, and pledged not to report him.

But Redfin refused to let her go and made a series of turns, causing her to lose all sense of direction for a while. A glaring light which she later came to realise came from a traffic light on the Dyke Road told her where they were.

“I could see a little glare under the blindfold. When I realised we were at that stoplight I said to myself ‘This is it,’ because about a month before they had found a girl there so I know it was a spot where they did those things. So, I just started to pray.

“He took a left turn somewhere off the road that led into some bushes near the water, he made a spin and then reversed and parked. He told me, ‘Don’t move,’ then came around and took my handbag. At this time my phone began ringing. He took it and turned it off,” she related.

She said Redfin took her necklace and earrings, removed her passport, and used his phone to take a photo of her image, then told her that if she reported him he would come looking for her.

She said when he put the knife to her neck, asking, “Tell mi why mi mustn’t kill yuh?” she grabbed at the only chance she thought she had to live, telling him she had been raped before and as such would do what he wanted.

“He said, ‘Oh, that’s why you are so calm. Well is one thing going to save you now, you have to give me [oral sex] and anyhow [you bite me] I am going to finish you,’ ” the victim related.

She said still blindfolded, trussed up and at knifepoint, she did as ordered until told to stop.

“I thought that was it, but then he began to remove my clothes,” she recounted. She said Redfin, who among other things questioned her about her sex life, after violating her replaced her clothing and set her upright once again. Some moments later, after driving from the area, he stopped, removed the blindfold, and told her to walk in the direction he turned her without looking back or he would kill her.

“He got in the car and sped off. I spun around and took a good look then I started bawling. I walked until I saw the Maxie’s Store, and I kept walking until I saw the Portmore Mall and I saw several taxis. I realised I had a taxi to take again [but] at this point I am like, ‘I don’t think the night can get any worse,’ ” she said.

When one of those drivers agreed to take her to her destination she took the chance and went. Upon reaching her gate and exiting safely she collapsed into the hands of her worried partner who met her at the gate.

In the whirlwind of trauma that ensued worried family members rushed with her to Greater Portmore Police Station after she regained consciousness and relayed what had happened.

“The police station called Spanish Town Hospital to arrange for the rape kit to be done but the hospital said I would have to come in the morning. So, I had to go back home. They said my first pee needed to be saved in a bottle; I was not to brush my teeth, or wash my face, or shower because they needed everything to swab. The whole night, nobody slept,” she said.

In the days before Redfin was caught she said she attempted suicide twice.

“The only thing I was angry about, and I tried to kill myself twice, is when I had to take the HIV pills. They were big and thick. I am not a pill person so from I saw it I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’ I had two bottles to complete and I had to do a pregnancy test. My partner took the food to me, carried the medication, and cut them for me. He put the knife down without realising I would think that way and I took it up. I turned the knife to stab myself in the belly and something said, ‘No, this too shall pass.’ The second time it happened he didn’t realise I would try it again. I stopped myself that time as well,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“I had sleepless nights, and the main reason for that was I assumed somebody was outside. I always felt like someone was watching me. I would sleep and watch; I would walk around and check the doors and windows at nights,” she said.

The fact that the matter took some five years to move forward did not help, she told the Sunday Observer.

“By that time, the other females were hesitant to come court. I went, but I was hesitant because I didn’t want to encounter anyone connected to him,” she said, explaining that to counter this she tried to change her appearance whenever she attended.

She, however, is annoyed at the fact that the matters were dealt with under one indictment, noting that this was more in Redfin’s favour than the victims’.

“Nobody had a discussion with us. If they were tried different and separate he would have spent more time in jail,” she reasoned while acknowledging that the length of time this would have taken would, however, be a deterrent.

In expressing disappointment with the sentences, however, the young woman said there was room for sensitivity as it relates to victims who find it hard to come forward in such cases.

“It’s not easy, not everybody has the same strength. The first step is acceptance [in telling yourself], ‘This is what happened,’ and you move on. Once you come forward and talk about it, you will find strength. Know within yourself you didn’t do anything wrong,” she said.

“Self-control is part of it; you have to have some form of self-control. But sleepless nights is a must, flashbacks is a must. I am troubled with panic attacks, though; even up to now, even this morning, travelling on the bus with my mother I felt claustrophobic. My counsellor explained that it was because he [Redfin] restricted me, so in those situations I feel like I am not in control. She gave me tactics to use but it’s very hard, so even this morning it was coming back,” she said, pointing out that being stuck in traffic also causes her to hyperventilate.

“The first time I took a taxi, I started shaking; I held on to the door, I tried to open the door while the car is moving. It’s a constant thing that doesn’t leave me. If you dress certain ways I am not going with you. I don’t do white plates again — a lot of things I don’t do again. I don’t know if I can travel by plane.

“The trauma never leaves. So to tell a female [victim] to step forward, people have to be patient because it comes with a lot of things behind it. You have to constantly remember, the person going to court [means] you have to see the person and everything is going to come back,” she explained.

Redfin, she said, stole not only her sense of security but also impacted her relationship with her partner, factors she believes should feature highly in sentencing decisions for sexual predators.

Her partner, she said, “doesn’t know I am still dealing with this because from it happened he was like, ‘Forget it happened,’ so whatever is happening now, I can’t tell him. He acts as if it never happened. To me, because he didn’t come to counselling with me, he put it under the carpet so it kinda put me in a place where it might cost the relationship because he doesn’t want to deal with it and it happened to me,” she confided.

“When it just happened he didn’t know how to touch me or look at me because he said he didn’t want to trigger my memories, so I had to give him the okay to say ‘Yes, you can touch me, you can look at me, but certain kinds of touching, don’t do.’ He was patient, very patient. I think we waited a year to try again but he won’t talk about it — and that’s something I wish for,” she told the Sunday Observer.

The woman, a trained professional in the hospitality industry who has struggled since then to hold a job because of her fear of travelling in public transportation, has also put her career goals on hold.

Asked what her plans for employment look like now she said, “My career for now is staying home,” while expressing that a situation where she could work from home would be a welcome option.

As for Redfin, she said while he pleaded guilty, he was unrepentant.

“The first time I saw him in court he stared right back at me and he had a smirk on his face,” she told the Sunday Observer, adding that he also leered at the victims when they were in the courtroom.

“I felt uncomfortable, I was worried about him looking and then going back to describe us. I tried not to repeat outfits but after a while I managed being in the same room with him,” she said.

But being in the same room with him, she said, is nothing compared to him being freed in a matter of years to roam the same spaces he had before.