Police ranks in Region Five are under scrutiny for their handling of a case involving a 14-year-old, who is now four months pregnant, including their failure to report the situation to the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA).
The ranks are under investigation for allegedly accepting money to settle a complaint made by the teen against her 22-year-old partner.
Stabroek News was told that CC&PA officers in Region Five are upset about the entire handling of the case by the police, who they say did not report it to them even after intervening in an earlier dispute between the four months pregnant teen and the man.
The allegations of accepting a bribe, this newspaper was told, are being denied by the policemen, who are now under investigation by senior ranks.
It is alleged that the officers demanded $50,000 from the man to settle the matter after he was taken into custody following a misunderstanding with the teen. The police reportedly asked the man for $50,000 to drop charges and he was said to have borrowed some of the money and paid over $45,000.
The matter only came to the attention of the CC&PA officers a few months later when a separate matter with the man’s close relative was being investigated at the Probation Department.
It was reported that the girl was married to the man at age 13, according to Hindu rites, after ingesting a noxious substance. Her parents had previously tried to prevent her from contacting the man.
Following a misunderstanding with her husband, the girl returned to her mother’s home. This newspaper was told too that the police officers took matters into their own hands and removed the girl and placed her in the care of her paternal grandmother.
This too did not go down well with the CC&PA officers, who have since insisted that the matter should have been reported to them. Yesterday, they ordered that the girl be returned to her mother. They are also calling on health centres to report cases of young girls who join antenatal clinics.
Under Guyana’s reformed law, the age of consent is 16 years.
