By N THOMAS-BROWN, Guardian Staff Reporter

nadine@nasguard.com

Despite being advised to remain quiet for her child's sake, the mother of the six-year-old girl whose brutal rape last year sparked widespread outrage, has decided to fight for changes in a law that allowed her daughter's rapist to serve a maximum of seven years in prison.

On Thursday, the mother, whose identity is being witheld by The Nassau Guardian to protect the identity of the child, spoke publicly for the first time following the sentencing of Andrew Bridgewater, who received the maximum sentence of seven years, plus an additional 10 lashes of the Cat 'O Nine Tails.

The sentence did not fit the crime, she told Michael Pintard, host of the GEMS radio talk show "The Way Forward."

"Every day I look at my daughter. When that sentence was passed I said it was not fair," said the mother in a pained voice.

And now she fears that Bridgewater stands a good chance of getting out of prison even earlier for good behavior. She said that she made the decision to speak out on the sentence because of the possiblity that her daughter, who would barely be in her teens when Bridgewater is scheduled to be released, could run into him, and this, she said, is her biggest fear. She also said she did not want Bridgewater to get the opportunity to rape again.

"The law should change and it should reflect a harsher punishment for the perpetrators," she said. "If we allow persons like this to commit these crimes

and then be out in seven years, then they feel as if they are getting away with it. It is not enough."

She is in the process of drawing up a petition in a push to have the existing laws amended and lengthen Bridgewater's sentence. She thinks that a life sentence would be a more appropriate punishment.

And while she appreciated listeners who called into the show to express their outrage over the incident, she said all it amounted to was outrage without

action.

She hopes that her appearance on the show will facilitate a movement to start change. The rape, she said, has changed her child's life tremendously. "She is not doing as well in school as she used to and being a single parent is extremely hard, but all I can do is show her how much I love her.

"She still feels it is her fault. To have your daughter look at you weeks coming out of the hospital and saying 'mummy you know how I feel? I feel like taking

a gun and putting it to my head'. That's how much she hurts. She is getting the necessary counselling but it is not enough. Her life can never go back."

The incident, she said, has also caused her daughter to become a recluse who is no longer interested in doing the things she once enjoyed.

Clever Duncombe, a child rights activist who was also a guest on the show, said he felt let down by the legislature.

He said that after examining the law as it related to sentences for sexual offenders - seven years for a first offense, 14 years for a second offense and life for people who raped more than twice - he asked whether the law was protecting the hardened criminals or powerful men who also were sometimes guilty of these crimes.

Duncombe also hit out at politicians for "not taking enough time to work on social development."

On Tuesday, Dr Sandra Dean-Patterson, head of the Crisis Center and a child advocate, said that a stiffer penalty would have been more appropriate in the

Bridgewater case, because it would have sent a message.

Prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office told The Guardian earlier this week that the length of Bridgewater's sentence is under consideration and the case might be headed to the Court of Appeal. They also said that the laws which govern rape cases might also come under consideration for review and or amendment.

Senior Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen, who handed down the sentence, said during the sentencing that she added 10 strokes of the Cat 'O Nine tails because she did not believe the time suited the violence of the crime.