A mother is at her wit’s end in her efforts to help her 13-year-old daughter, who has been held at the Bartica Police Station lock-ups since Monday, when she was charged with wandering.
According to the mother, the girl, who has been having sex with a man in his 20s since she was 12, was charged on Wednesday and she was remanded. She is due for court again today.
Juveniles should be sent to the Juvenile Holding Centre in Georgetown. But the mother said the child has been in the Bartica Police Station.
When Stabroek News contacted the police station to verify if the child was in custody, officers there refused to comment.
Despite the police’s refusal to comment, Stabroek News was able to find out from a credible source that the girl was being held in the lock-ups with adult prisoners.
The mother said her deepest fear is losing her daughter to the New Opportunity Corps after spending the past year in fighting for her with her adult suitor.
The mother said it is the second time the child has been charged with wandering. She said the previous time the magistrate dismissed the case because the police’s facts did not correspond with the charge since the girl had been found at the man’s house.
The mother said a warning was issued to the girl by the magistrate but it did not stop her and the man from running away again. She said it was only on Monday that they were caught and both of them were charged. It is unclear what charge was read against the man but she said he was released on $10,000 bail, while her daughter is currently in the lock-ups.
Stabroek News contacted Minister of Social Security Volda Lawrence on Wednesday to ask if she was aware of the case. Her secretary said she was not aware of it but the Ministry would conduct an investigation. Up to late last night, the Minister’s secretary could not provide any answers because the investigation was still ongoing.
The woman is a vendor and has to look after six children while her husband is away in the interior. She said one day the man had visited her to buy bread. Afterward, he started to visit often.
She said her daughter would usually help her sell and the young man had been admiring her silently when he visited. The woman said while she was away on business, her daughter said that the young man visited and claimed he loved her and wanted to marry her.
The woman later learned from a neighbour that the girl had been sexually active with the man. Upon hearing the news, the mother confronted the girl, who confessed. She was then taken for a medical exam and it was confirmed that she had been sexually active. The woman said she made a report to the Bartica Police Station but when they tried to apprehend the man he ran away.
Later, the man once more began contacting the girl and the mother said she tried to get the police to intervene but they would not act. As a result, she said she warned the man herself that he must not do anything to hinder her daughter’s education but he ignored her and took the girl away for 12 days while she was away.
