Adventist elder detained for alleged child sex abuse
Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church condemned child sex abusers
PRESIDENT of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, Pastor Everett Brown, yesterday warned that his church will not protect anyone who has broken the law, following a report that one of his church elders was arrested for questioning in relation to the sexual assault of a minor.
The elder, who attends a St Mary church (???), was arrested on Wednesday night by the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse after a report was made.
“While we await the outcome of the investigations, we admonish our workers and members to live up to the high moral and ethical code of conduct for which our church is known and to cooperate with the authorities in bringing to justice those who have violated the laws of the land,” the Adventist president said in a release.
Pastor Brown also condemned unlawful sex acts against children, adding that the church sympathised with the victims and their families who have been traumatised by abuse of any kind.
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica is committed to upholding its high Christians values and will not shelter any worker or member who runs afoul of the law,” Brown said.
The report comes amid the sex scandal rocking the Moravian church, of which three senior members are now before the court for the alleged sexual abuse of under-age girls.
Teachers suspended as 19 sex abuse cases probed
BY: DARLISA GHOURALAL, Loop, Trinidad & Tobago
Nineteen teacher/student sexual abuse cases are currently being investigated by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), while the teachers involved have been placed on suspension pending the outcome of the probes.
The cases range from sexual touching to sexting, hugging and sexual intercourse with students.
This was revealed during a meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Diversity, as the Committee sought to examine the systems in place to protect children from abuse. Officials from the Education Ministry, the Police Service, the Children's Authority and the Child Welfare League appeared before the Committee.
Responding to questions posed by Committee member Randall Mitchell, Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan (seen right) indicated that a total of 117 cases are before the TSC.
The disciplinary process currently utilised to deal with “errant” teachers involves an initial investigation, after which the matter is brought before the Commission for review.
The Chief Education Officer explained that any incident considered misconduct within schools, which do not necessarily involve teacher/student relations are subject to the same procedure.
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| Maracas Bay, Trinidad |
Where sexual misconduct is concerned, if it is believed that a student’s safety may be compromised, through an arrangement between the Ministry and the TSC a report is sent in the space of 24 hours which may result in a cease-reporting issue from the Commission, pending its determination.
“In instances where we can't determine that we can't wait 24 hours, those teachers are asked to report to the district so we take them out immediately from the system. There is a clearly defined disciplinary process and that doesn't prevent or exclude if it's a criminal matter that the police do their own investigation and they go through the process.”
Responding to a question from Committee Chairman Nyan Gadsby-Dolly on the legislative capacity to protect children from abuse, particularly where the Romeo Clause is concerned, Guidance Officer II Darlene Smith indicated that sexual experimentation and curiosity is an issue school officials are dealing with from as early as infant classes.
Porn contributing greatly to child on child sex assaults
“Children have access and more exposure to a lot of sexual activities and pornography. Even via the cellphones that we casually hand a three-year-old or four-year-old to play with and use and you click a button…and you see the porn."
So, what we have seen several times is that children even in the infant classes can experiment, and when we do go in and investigate…some parents still allow five-year-olds/six year-olds to sleep…in their (the parents) beds. When you think they are sleeping, they are not.”
Smith said these children sometimes walk in on relatives looking at pornography at night and go to school the following day and act out what they have witnessed.
Continuous exposure to pornographic material is rousing curiosity, causing children to perform sexual acts on other children.
The Romeo Clause helps to protect these children as they are considered innocent in their actions.
Smith said, however, that officials need to be vigilant to ensure that the legislation is not being misused “under the cover of that protection”.
SRP Inspector with the Child Protection Unit Beverly Paul indicated that where it is determined that a child has been coerced, exploited or sexually groomed by another child or relative, there are grounds for prosecution.
She acknowledged however, that there may be those using the Clause as a loophole to escape prosecution.
A number of conditions have to be satisfied in order for the parties involved to be protected by the Romeo Clause: the proximity of age (two to three year gap), must not be a familial relation, must not be of the same sex, and no evidence of exploitation, coercion, grooming or manipulation in that relationship.
Christalle Gemon, Deputy Director – Care, Legal and Regulatory Services at the Children’s Authority confirmed that the Clause does not debar a 12-year-old (the age of criminal responsibility regarding sex crimes) from being prosecuted where it is determined that they have used coercion to carry out a sexual crime.
Inter-generational child sex abuse
She noted that the Authority has dealt with cases where children fall under the parameters of the Romeo Clause and have perpetrated a sex crime against another child but investigations reveal that the perpetrator is a victim of sexual abuse.
Acknowledging the need for increased detection of sexual crimes against children within schools, Chief Education Officer noted that there has been increased reporting following a mandate set out by the Education Ministry.
He said however, that in order to treat all cases as priority and provide accurate data on the number of cases of child sexual abuse, some staffing issues need to be addressed.
“In terms of whether we need to direct people in the various fields of study, I think it’s twofold. One (issue) is…given the size of the institution and the number of persons, our HR department deals with more than 10,000 teachers.
In Student Support Services alone, we have 500 persons, a number of them are on contract. We have in schools IT technicians who are contract. We have business operations assistants who are in contract positions.
Part of the challenge we have experienced…is that whole recruitment filling of vacancies of vacancies process.”
“There are positions on the establishment, positions that we have available that sometimes takes an inordinate amount of time to fill. That’s one of the areas that we are attempting to address.”
“If we can get all of the positions that are available filled first…if we can have that system working properly, then it puts us in a good footing for the next step, where we can then make a proper analysis in terms of how much more we need.”
Man in custody after being found with minor
BY: DAREECE POLO
A 27-year-old man is now in police custody at the Sangre Grande Police Station, Trinidad, after he was caught in an abandoned house with a 13-year-old girl in Rio Claro on Wednesday.
According to police reports, around 11:30 am, officers received an anonymous tip from residents of Circular Road that a girl dressed in a school uniform, was seen entering the house with an adult.
Eastern Division Task Force officers responded and apprehended the suspect.
The teenaged girl was taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital where she was medically examined.
The Children’s Authority is continuing investigations.
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