A 21 year old Icelandic woman, Heiðrún Mjöll Bachmann, has accused a Nicaraguan celebrity, the winner of the title “Mister Nicaragua”, of raping her. Heiðrún Mjöll told the Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið that she believes the man slipped something into her drink at a party, and that he raped her when she woke up the next morning.
Alleged rapist befriended her on Facebook
Heiðrún Mjöll went to Nicaragua to work as an Au pair for an Icelandic family. She says she first saw the man at the gym and that he then befriended her on Facebook. “We started chatting, but I was very careful, which I am always”, she told Fréttablaðið. The two then decided to meet on Thursday, and went to a party with mutual friends. Heiðrún says she had a drink at the party, but believes the drink had been poisoned because the next thing she remembers is waking up in a hotel room she had never seen before, with the man lying next to her.
“I vaguely remember him kissing me, and touching me, but I say no. But then I pass out again. When I wake up the next morning he rapes me. I tried to push him away, and tell him to stop, but I was too weak and I had no chance of escaping. When he finishes off I get out and ask my friend to come and get me.”
Accuses local authorities of trying to shift the blame to her
According to Heiðrún the local authorities seemed less than interested in hearing her story or helping her. “There is a lot of poverty here, and the system is seriously flawed. But I felt I couldn’t keep quit and allow him to get away with this. So I went and filed charges.”
But filing charges against the alleged rapist proved more difficult than she had feared. The system looks like it’s set up to discourage the reporting of rape or to convince rape victims they are themselves to blame:
“They keep postponing interviews and medical examinations, telling me to go somewhere else, or asking me to wait. They were going to postpone the first medical examination a full day, which would have meant I wouldn’t have been able to go to the toilet or take a shower, but then I simply flipped out and got my way. … This kind of treatment makes you feel as if what happened is not really important. That it’s your own fault.”
Wants to draw attention to the plight of rape victims
She was interrogated about the length of her skirt and what she had done to lead the alleged rapist on. The fact that the man is a local celebrity and the retrograde ideas of gender which permeate Nicaraguan society make the police and authorities reluctant to do anything, she believes.
Heiðrún Mjöll tells Fréttablaðið that she suspects the alleged rapist sees nothing wrong with what happened. “I feel I must do something to draw attention to what things are like here, and the special treatment he seems to be getting.”
A 21 year old Icelandic woman, Heiðrún Mjöll Bachmann, has accused a Nicaraguan celebrity, the winner of the title “Mister Nicaragua”, of raping her. Heiðrún Mjöll told the Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið that she believes the man slipped something into her drink at a party, and that he raped her when she woke up the next morning.
Alleged rapist befriended her on Facebook
Heiðrún Mjöll went to Nicaragua to work as an Au pair for an Icelandic family. She says she first saw the man at the gym and that he then befriended her on Facebook. “We started chatting, but I was very careful, which I am always”, she told Fréttablaðið. The two then decided to meet on Thursday, and went to a party with mutual friends. Heiðrún says she had a drink at the party, but believes the drink had been poisoned because the next thing she remembers is waking up in a hotel room she had never seen before, with the man lying next to her.
“I vaguely remember him kissing me, and touching me, but I say no. But then I pass out again. When I wake up the next morning he rapes me. I tried to push him away, and tell him to stop, but I was too weak and I had no chance of escaping. When he finishes off I get out and ask my friend to come and get me.”
Accuses local authorities of trying to shift the blame to her
According to Heiðrún the local authorities seemed less than interested in hearing her story or helping her. “There is a lot of poverty here, and the system is seriously flawed. But I felt I couldn’t keep quit and allow him to get away with this. So I went and filed charges.”
But filing charges against the alleged rapist proved more difficult than she had feared. The system looks like it’s set up to discourage the reporting of rape or to convince rape victims they are themselves to blame:
“They keep postponing interviews and medical examinations, telling me to go somewhere else, or asking me to wait. They were going to postpone the first medical examination a full day, which would have meant I wouldn’t have been able to go to the toilet or take a shower, but then I simply flipped out and got my way. … This kind of treatment makes you feel as if what happened is not really important. That it’s your own fault.”
Wants to draw attention to the plight of rape victims
She was interrogated about the length of her skirt and what she had done to lead the alleged rapist on. The fact that the man is a local celebrity and the retrograde ideas of gender which permeate Nicaraguan society make the police and authorities reluctant to do anything, she believes.
Heiðrún Mjöll tells Fréttablaðið that she suspects the alleged rapist sees nothing wrong with what happened. “I feel I must do something to draw attention to what things are like here, and the special treatment he seems to be getting.”
