Relatives of the 12-year-old girl who is pregnant, allegedly with her stepfather’s child, believe that the girl’s mother has been “covering up” for the man for years out of fear.
Earlier this week, the girl was placed in the care of the Child Care & Protection Agency (CC&PA) after it was learnt that she was pregnant.
When contacted, Crime Chief Leslie James confirmed that two persons, including the stepfather, had been taken into police custody. However, he explained that persons cannot be kept indefinitely in custody and the man was subsequently released following questioning.
Now, a relative has come forward stating that the girl had made a rape allegation against her stepfather in 2011, when she was 9 years old.
According to the relative, the girl would usually venture to the city during the August vacation, along with other relatives, to visit her mother and return before school recommenced.
In 2011, the girl was sent to Georgetown without adult supervision and returned home weeks later, claiming that she had been sexually assaulted by the stepfather.
The relative told this newspaper that the girl’s mother and her stepfather were immediately confronted but the man denied everything. The mother also refuted the young girl’s claims.
The matter was not reported to the authorities and for the next two years the girl and her relatives would continue their visits to the mother in Georgetown.
However, the allegations resurfaced this year when the young girl, whom the relative stated had been sickly from birth, fell ill in January and was referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
The stepfather was tasked with transporting the girl to Georgetown. However, she was never taken to the GPH and instead spent the next three months at her mother’s home.
It was only upon the relative’s insistence that the girl was finally allowed to return home. “I start to ask why she’s not home yet because she wasn’t sick anymore and she wasn’t going to school or anything so it didn’t make sense for her to stay,” the relative stated.
However, before she left, the girl was reportedly confronted by her mother about her weight gain and asked whether she was pregnant. Though the girl reportedly admitted that she was pregnant and claimed that the stepfather had been the one to impregnate her, the mother objected before sending the 12-year-old on her way.
According to the relative, the mother works at night and it would have been during the time she was at work that the alleged attacks occurred.
Once she arrived back home, relatives immediately realised that the girl was pregnant and made a report at a police station. The police in turn took them to the hospital to confirm the girl’s pregnancy. That report was allegedly made on May 7 of this year. However, the police explained that the matter had not happened in the area and therefore needed to be transferred to Georgetown.
The police promised that the report would be taken to the city.
“Up to now I didn’t hear anything back,” the relative said.
When the girl complained of abdominal pains recently, she was transferred to GPH. No relative accompanied her to Georgetown as they all believed the mother would have taken care of her on her arrival.
“I guess they were thinking that her mother would’ve looked after her in Georgetown but then again, if you don’t grow a child you don’t have feelings for that child,” the relative said.
Relatives of the girl believe that her mother is defending the stepfather out of fear of a backlash from his family.
“When the two of them fight and she puts him in the hands of the police his family does turn back on her and treat her badly,” the relative said.
The relative said the stepfather is unemployed. “… so whatever money she makes he gets it from her and if she doesn’t give it he gets vex with her,” the relative said. “She’s the one that’s the breadwinner; she’s paying the rent, she’s paying everything.”
Earlier this week, the CC&PA became aware of the girl’s situation after they were contacted by hospital officers on her admission.
The girl was released from the hospital on Wednesday into the care of CC&PA; she is almost full-term.
Police are investigating.
