GIRL RAPED AT AGE EIGHT

GIRL RAPED AT AGE EIGHT


By Nalinee Seelal Friday, April 1 2016



A 13-YEAR-OLD Form One student of a secondary school in east Trinidad, broke down and cried last Thursday afternoon at the Rio Claro Police Station as she related the rape acts she endured at the hands of her HIV positive stepfather when she was just eight years old. Reports of the incident caused head of the Victim and Witness Support Unit, Margaret Sampson-Brown to issue a call to parents yesterday to be careful about people with whom they develop relationships and allow into their homes.

“We want to implore mothers to be aware of what is happening and who you bring into your home as your significant other.,” Sampson Brown told Newsday. “You have to be careful because some of these significant others are there to focus on your child, and my experience here is that we have had reports where persons are engaging mothers and they target the girl child.

So mothers, we are imploring you to be careful of your choices, and, while we have good stepfathers, there are those who are causing irreparable harm to children.” The girl, accompanied by her 41-year-old mother, who defied threats if she disclosed the matter to the police, went to the Rio Claro Police Station at about 3.30 pm and reported that she was feeling unwell and had been experiencing an unusual discharge from her private parts.

The girl was then taken to the Rio Claro Health Centre where she was medically examined by Dr Chinedu Ebisike who advised that she does a blood test to ascertain whether she had contracted HIV.

The shell-shocked teen could not contain her emotions when told that there was a strong possibility that she may have the disease but agreed to submit herself to the blood test.

The girl’s mother admitted that she was aware that her then common- law husband was HIV positive, but was threatened that if the rape acts on her daughter were reported to police, her life would be in danger.

The woman kept the secret of her daughter’s assault to herself and prayed that the child did not contract the dreaded disease.

Child Protection Unit intervenes Newsday understands officers of the Child Protection Unit (CPU) of the Police Service were contacted and WPC Cpl Forbes was assigned to the case.

Mother and daughter are now undergoing counselling by officers of the Witness and Victim Support Unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).

According to sources, the mother eventually confronted the man about the rape acts and this led to a heated confrontation resulting in the man fleeing the house.

He is reported to be still living in the Rio Claro area but has not had any contact with either the girl or her mother.

Newsday understands the CPU is now making attempts to contact the man to question him about the alleged rape acts, but attempts to locate him have proved futile.

The CPU has received 351 reports of abuse against children in January and February of this year. For the period May to December 2015, the Unit received 1,358 reports of abuse against children.

These statistics were disclosed by Supt Odette Lewis of the CPU at a weekly press briefing of the TTPS at the Police Administration Building, Edward Street, Port-of- Spain on March 16 . She said of those cases in the eight-month period in 2015, some 282 of them resulted in the matters being brought before the courts, while for January and February period this year, 76 of those matters are now before the court. Lewis noted that sexual penetration was the most prevalent crime being committed.

“The statistics have shown sexual crimes were prevalent towards children 15 years old and under. It also shows that in 90 percent of these crimes towards children, females are the victims,” she said.

She explained that under the Children’s Act, 2012, sexual penetration for sexual gratification does not only refer to rape or buggery but also to the penetration of any bodily orifice of the child, inclusive of the nose, mouth and ears.

Lewis urged parents and guardians to look for warning signs of possible abuse of their child. Some of these include shying away from physical activities, reluctance to undress in front of others before whom they may have previously felt comfortable, and strong avoidance of a specific person without an obvious reason.

The CPU was established in May 2015 and in each of the nine police divisions there is a unit. Lewis admitted that one of the Unit’s biggest challenges was support from the community.

“When we get the information, when it is time to gather the evidence, we have people not willing to go the distance, to give us that in writing to afford us all the necessary evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice.

We are pleading and begging the community, come forward, it will be treated with strictest of confidence,” she said.

She added that another challenge was providing safe places for abused children.

“If a child is in a home where the perpetrator is the father or the mother, that child cannot stay there. Then you have a relative who might be willing but not able, so the State has to provide that.” Yesterday Sampson-Brown said, “I know for a fact that the CPU has been working assiduously in the Rio Claro area and they are supported by the Victim Support officers Kasim Perez and Jemma Taylor-Alexander and they are doing proactive work which may cause people to draw attention, identify the red flags and make reports to the police so that the police can act on them. We want to encourage people to make reports. It is a sad thing as it is considered an offence for someone who is HIV positive to have sex with someone and, in this case, a minor whom he had power and control over.

She noted that the Victim and Witness Support Unit and the CPU have to step up how they do business in the eastern division.

She reiterated, “we have to empower communities and parents and go to schools to talk to children”.

www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,225973.html