-child now in protective care
The mother of the 12-year-old girl who went missing last month and was later found in a house in New Amsterdam, Berbice has said that she disbelieves the allegations of abuse the girl made against her stepfather.
The child, who was allegedly raped by a man she stayed with in Berbice, has been under the guardianship of the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) for the past three weeks or so. Her mother has since said that upon her release, she will live with an aunt.
The CPA has not yet concluded its investigations, but the mother said she plans to hire a lawyer by the end of this month because she doesn’t want the child to remain under the agency’s care for such a long time.
“She can’t be there all the time. I don’t even know if she’s going to school. The investigation was supposed to finish long now,” the mother told Stabroek News in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I’m not allowed to know where she is, and I can’t visit unless I call and arrange for them to bring her to Broad Street.”
When contacted, Director of the CPA Levine Gouveia told Stabroek News she was not willing to offer a comment on any case that is being managed by the agency.
The events were reportedly initiated by a ‘TikTok’ affair that the child was carrying on with a 25-year-old mason, who has since been charged with the offence of rape of a child under 16 years.
According to the mother, the girl went to spend time with her relatives and used an aunt’s phone to access TikTok and communicate with the man. She memorised his number and subsequently used her friend’s phone in school to continue such communication.
In a Facebook live, the 34-year-old mother had related that the child was found in a house with a one-year-old after making plans to meet the man after school last January 20. The child told her mother that the man was on an XR motorcycle, which she mounted and was taken to Berbice. Once there, she said, the man told her he was having issues with his fiancée and that his child was staying with him.
She further told her mother that the man bought her clothing and took her for walks at night to a vehicle wash bay where people would gather to hangout, and introduced her to his friends as his girlfriend.
She also revealed to her mother that she was left with the one-year-old in the house daily. She said she made attempts to contact her mother, but the phone did not have credit. She further alleged that the man raped her on multiple occasions in the house. The child said she was in the house with the toddler when the police arrived. She added that the police asked her name, age and showed her the picture of the missing report and she confirmed the information. She and the toddler were both taken to the police station and her mother was contacted.
‘She thinks she’s big’
Regarding the girl’s allegations of abuse by her stepfather, the mother said she did not believe it, especially since the man has been caring for the child since she was five years old, with little or no help from the biological father.
“She thinks she’s big. When children can’t get their own way … she wanted her own way,” the mother expressed. She claimed that the child told their pastor and other friends that her allegations were not true. “People can continue to judge me. I don’t care what people say. I know the truth, God knows the truth and my daughter knows the truth, and it will prevail someday.”
The mother has advised other parents not to allow their young children access to cellphones.
