(Jamaica Observer) Efforts to prosecute child sex offenders in State-run children’s homes have been stumped by the soft-touch approach to apprehending men, some of them enjoying high profiles, a discussion yesterday revealed.
At the same time, the failure of some of those who work in the institutions to report crimes against girls has also contributed to offenders going unpunished.
The disclosures were made during the weekly Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston where Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon, members of his Mustard Seed Communities and partner child-care specialists discussed the issue of children in State care.
Moira Morgan of the Griffin Trust told journalists that Jamaica was failing its children, particularly its girls, as far as enforcing punishment on sex offenders was concerned.
The Griffin Trust — a United Kingdom-based organisation incorporated in 1990 — is already heavily involved with helping inner-city youth turn away from crime.
“When we look down that road, this is where I totally lose faith in Jamaica,” stated Morgan, herself a UK citizen.
“I can honestly say it was not under Gladys Brown, it was before her time, because I have seen where we have taken 12 and 13-year-old pregnant girls to CISOCA (Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse) and they will call the man concerned to invite him to an interview. If it was me and you they would arrest us,” Morgan said.
“Obviously it depends on who is abusing and where,” she added.
Ongoing reports say that girls who live in children’s homes are often abused by staff who either become physically involved in the activity or see things happening and keep quiet about it; and by outsiders, commonly referred to in the child-care fraternity as ‘fence men’.
Dr Carolyn Gomes, head of local human rights group Jamaicans For Justice, corroborated a claim made by Morgan about the irregular activities in children’s homes.
“There is a particular children’s home — and I won’t call the name — but we were invited by the superintendent of children’s homes to a meeting with the known abusers and the police in order to try and persuade them to stop,” Dr Gomes shockingly revealed.
“We pointed it out to the head of the CDA (Child Development Agency), and to her credit she moved to end the meeting, but we pointed out that to sit down with people that you know are abusing children is in breach of the Child Care and Prevention Act.
“This children’s home calls the people outside the fence — the fence men. They are well known for sexually abusing girls and, in fact, we have one particular case that happened last month where a child was raped in this place of safety,” Dr Gomes said.
The fence men, it emerged, have sex with the girls from behind the fence, or at times go onto the properties to carry out the act. It is an act that is often not seen, conveniently, by some of those involved in the day-to-day activities of institutions. It is alleged that personnel in some children’s homes are rewarded, usually in monetary form, by the offenders for keeping their mouths shut.
“Under the Child Care and Prevention Act, persons who know what is happening and do nothing about it are in breach,” Morgan said.
“There was one recent report which said that men from neighbouring communities prey on the girls. Some of the staff know and did nothing about it,” she stated.
Morgan also pointed out that the type of music played by staff in children’s homes, particularly when there are social activities, leaves a lot to be desired.
“I made a report on a home in St Andrew where the music that was being played by the staff for the girls was music that cannot be played on radio. It is so x-rated. When I took it up with the people concerned, our behavioural change programme in the home was cancelled, saying they no longer required it. I was asked not to return to that particular home,” Morgan revealed.
“Nobody from the department, to this day, has ever asked us what happened on that particular day,” she said, adding that an official of the CDA was there for the first part of it and was well aware of the kind of music that was being played.
“They should be locked up. I usually come out of the so-called places of safety so angry.
“I spoke to the manageress of the place and I say ‘are you listening to what they are playing out there for the girls’?
‘Yes’, she responded, ‘it concerns me too’. I said ‘why are you playing it’? Her response was this: ‘It is their culture and therefore we have to give it to them’.
“My response was ‘madam, which part of their culture is push up, squeeze up, tight up, shub up and which part of their culture is not your culture?’ Hence, I was told that ‘we no longer need your behavioural change programme and please do not return’,” Morgan said.
