Manila: A gynaecologist who testified during the hearing on the rape of a Filipina said she did not find any indication that the victim had been forced by her alleged American rapists.
"I do not find any injury significant to suggest that there was rape or force," private obstetrician-gynaecologist Teresita Sanchez said after the defence presented her as an expert witness before the suburban Makati regional trial court yesterday.
Sanchez said that even if the 22-year-old victim, who had been referred to as "Nicole" by the press and by the court," had been excessively drunk, she could have provided her tormentor or tormentors some resistance which could lead her to suffer bruises in her inner thigh.
Sanchez, who is the third witness to be presented by the defence, said even intoxicated rape victims sustain injuries on the thighs when sexually assaulted because force is used.
Nicole, in her earlier testimonies had claimed that she had been raped inside a moving van by an American serviceman whom she identified as Lance Corporal Daniel Smith.
Absent
But while Smith, along with the three other co-accused Marines namely: Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier, and Lance Corporals Dominic Duplantis and Keith Silkwood, were present during the hearing, victim Nicole was conspicuously absent on her case.
Also present yesterday were five female public prosecutors who had been accused by Nicole last week of incompetently handling her case.
Nicole last week, had requested that the five members of a panel of public prosecutors defending her be replaced as she alleged them of "selling out" her case.
