The staff at the New Opportunity Corp (NOC) are believed to have colluded to stonewall the police investigation into sexual and physical abuse claims by former residents of the institution. Sources have revealed that it was not a case of there not being some amount of credibility to the allegations.
“There was not enough to institute charges…other staff members who were named as being present during some of the alleged abuse claimed that it never happened,” a source recently told the Sunday Stabroek.
And while as revealed by Crime Chief Leslie James the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) did indeed advise that no charges be laid, this newspaper’s sources indicate that a recommendation was made for the Ministry of Youth Sport & Culture to launch an investigation into the operation of the institution. High on the list of recommendations was a complete overhaul of the institution and for qualified and professional staff members be hired to work with the troubled children who are sent there.
According to sources while the staff members maintained that male staff members dealt with male residents and female staff members with female residents there was a common thread in the allegations that male staff members did deal with female residents.
“There were cases where ex-residents would corroborate what was being alleged but the staff members all denied it happened…this made it difficult to find the evidence that would have stood up in court,” one law enforcement source told this newspaper.
It was revealed that after the first file was submitted by the police to the DPP, officers with specific instructions then visited the institution where they spoke to staff members. The lawmen were unable to locate any hose that the residents said they were beaten with or the ‘detention room’ which the NOC officials have referred to as the ‘quiet room.’
A source had earlier told this newspaper that such a room did exist and described it as being “worse than Brickdam Police Station.” The source had also told this newspaper that some stakeholders were shocked when they observed the room at the facility, which is expected to reform young offenders placed there for a period by the court.
“It is surprising that there is such a room at NOC, you should not have such a room at a facility which does not cater for hardened criminals but really seeks to reform young children and equip them with a skill,” a source had said.
“The children spoke of a detention room… this is a concrete room with a grilled bar and door.
There is no bed, there is no mattress, there is no sheet and there is no washroom facility. They spoke of having to defecate and urinate in a bucket and they are left in there for two or three days without the bucket being changed,” APNU MP Christopher Jones, who had been at the forefront of making the abuse allegations public, had also told this newspaper.
“If several girls are saying the same thing then it stands to reason that they are not making up the allegations…whether there was a massive cover-up by staff members one can never tell,” one knowledgeable source said.
The source maintained that there is “some truth” to what the girls alleged, also pointing out that they were talking about incidents which happened far back as 2012 and they may not have their dates and timing right.
“There is enough in that file to say that something sinister did happen,” another source maintained.
In one case one of the girls alleged that a staff member had raped her and she had given a last name and a description of the person. However, when the police visited the institution it was found that there was only one person on staff with that last name and he did not fit the description given by the girl. The source noted that the allegation should not be dismissed out of hand, because that person may have since left the employ of the institution although staff members denied that any such person worked there.
The girls, who were removed from the institution after the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) in an unprecedented move applied to the High Court for this to be done, had also said they had sex with some of the male residents. The four girls, who are all under the age of 16, had told their parents that that they had sexual intercourse with the boys who had found their hideout after they had escaped. The boys took food for them in return.
This was also told to the police and according to one source when questioned the boys indicated that that the girls were their girlfriends. In one instance a boy said one of the girls was his girlfriend for two years and they had regular sexual intercourse. While the girls said they had sex they did not indicate that they were forced to do so, and as one source pointed out under the Sexual Offences Act if the boy and girl are of similar ages then the claim of consent can be used as a defence.
“Once there is that age issue then also the ‘close in age’ defence applies,” a source said.
The Sunday Stabroek also understands that there were records of the girls having several sexual encounters and some had to be seen by the medical person on hand. That person, this newspaper was told, kept meticulous records from which it was derived that there was “a lot promiscuity going on.”
It does not stand to reason, the source said, that the boys and girls are indeed kept separate as is claimed by the institution.
‘Never advise’
Meanwhile, once source said that the claim that the NOC is involved in rehabilitating young people is far from the truth. The source said that they would advise parent if they can not to send their children to the institution as instead of being rehabilitated they leave the institution in a worse state.
It was pointed out that most of the staff members are unqualified for the posts they hold and as such the DPP’s office advised that this issue should be looked at urgently. Some staff members, it was said, were hired in their early 20s and there was doubt as to whether they have the life-skills or are professionally qualified to deal with the youths sent there most of whom are troubled and in need of professional help.
“These young people need guidance; there don’t need draconian measures,” one source noted.
This newspaper was unable to ascertain whether the list of recommendations was indeed passed on to the ministry since it is not the first time the issue of unqualified staff members has been raised. This was one of the recommendations made in the still-to-be-released report of the Board of Inquiry (BOI) conducted into the 2012 escape and torching of part of the institution.
For his part Youth Minister Dr Frank Anthony himself admitted that the issue of staff members not being suitably qualified is an ongoing problem at the institution, coupled with vacancies.
“One of the major problems that we get is that people don’t want to go work there… So while we would like to get the best qualified staff, we would have repeatedly advertised various positions of the NOC and we are having difficulty to fill some of those vacancies with qualified persons,” the minister had told a press conference earlier this year.
One training officer at the institution, Brian King, during his interview with the BOI had lamented the inadequacies of NOC’s staff. “You have to remind them every day of their roles and functions. They are young and inexperienced. They get high tempered in dealing with the students and don’t understand the real causes of the child’s behaviour… We just have persons with basic experience and who are here long enough but are now sending in sick leave. We are looking for persons with military backgrounds to try not to be forceful.”
Despite several promises Dr Anthony is yet to release the final report on a mass breakout from the NOC in May 2012 and the burning down of two buildings. The final report was handed over several months ago after a long delay. The problems at the NOC have seen calls for its removal from under the control of the Ministry of Youth.
