NZ paper says UK-born woman held, raped in PH

ILOILO CITY—Saying she wanted her ordeal to serve as a warning to others, a British-born woman has surfaced and claimed that she was held captive and repeatedly raped for five and a half months until early this year in the Philippines.

In a report of the New Zealand Herald posted on its website on Sept. 20, Mary Elizabeth Jones, 39, said she was kept in a small and dirty room, beaten and raped daily by up to nine men.

The New Zealand Herald, published in Auckland, is considered as the leading daily of the western Pacific island country.

The report could not be independently confirmed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the New Zealand Embassy. The US Embassy, however, confirmed that it gave assistance to Jones but would not give details or confirm her ordeal.

Lydia Rubio, officer in charge of the Haven National Center for Women in Manila, confirmed that Jones was brought to the center. Rubio, however, refused to give additional information.

The center, a joint project of the Congressional Spouses Foundation Inc. and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, gives shelter and assistance to sexually abused girls and women, victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and women in emergency situations.

Invitation through Facebook

Jones, a martial arts enthusiast, was quoted by the New Zealand Herald as saying she came to the Philippines in October last year on an invitation through Facebook for a monthlong martial arts training.

“They were meant to be world class and I thought this was a chance for me to learn from the best,” the paper quoted Jones as saying.

The report said Jones’ ordeal started after she was picked up from this city’s airport by the leader of the group that abducted her, robbed her and held her captive in a bug-infested room.

Jones was quoted as saying that she was forced to have sex with up to nine men.

“I felt utterly disgusted and I was treated like a piece of meat. It was meant to be a trip of a lifetime but it has destroyed my whole life instead,” she was quoted as saying in the report.

She said she lost several of her teeth after she repeatedly attempted to escape and fight back.

Jones said in the report that she was starved and “too weak to stand” when she was left in the streets of Manila.

The report did not identify her abductors, where she was kept and when she was freed. It also did not say when and how she was transferred undetected from Iloilo to Manila, which is an hour by plane and at least 18 hours by boat.

The Iloilo airport is in Cabatuan town, which is 24 kilometers from Iloilo City.

Back in New Zealand

Jones was taken to the Haven National Center for Women and returned to New Zealand with the help of the US Embassy, said The New Zealand Herald report.

The report said Jones was born in the United Kingdom and had a British passport but moved to Auckland as a child where she studied at the Avondale Intermediate and Avondale College.

She later moved to the United States and worked as a business management and computer technologist in Alaska before she went to the Philippines.

Supt. Ranulfo Demiar, chief of operations of the PNP in Western Visayas, said police have no information about Jones’ supposed ordeal.

Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, PNP spokesperson, said he also has no information about Jones’ case.

Not much details

The US Embassy confirmed that it had helped Jones in the Philippines, according to The New Zealand Herald.

This was confirmed by Bettina Malone, information officer of the US Embassy in Manila. But Malone declined to give details about the abduction, rape and captivity of Jones or how the US Embassy helped her.

Jones was quoted as saying she lost 30 kg to 50 kg in weight during her five-month captivity. She is now recovering at a boarding house in Mangere, a suburb in south Auckland, according to the report.

“I hate myself immensely and feel so dirty. I wish I could have just died in the Philippines rather than go on living like this,” she said in the report.

She said she was coming out “to warn others who ‘may be tempted’ by similar invitations.”

“Even now, I still wake up shivering and can still smell the stench of the enclosed room I was kept in…,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Jones as saying.