Show No Love to Child Predators

Jamaica has talented and promising youngsters who, if given a chance, and the care and protection they deserve, will become good and productive citizens and ensure the future of our country.

There is, however, a piece of that future being taken away by the cold-hearted, mentally deranged and brazenly bold sex predators who keep robbing our children of their innocence.

Our society again sank into an abyss of despair when news broke that 14-year-old Sontoya Campbell was sexually abused and impregnated then strangled to death. Not long after, 14-year-old Kayalicia Simpson was chopped to death because she, too, was pregnant and was reportedly about to name the psycho who abused her.

The Gleaner article ‘Pimp parents persist!’ – March 1, 2015 brought into focus the high incidence of teenage pregnancy and child sexual abuse. It is alarming that some parents of victims embrace this criminal act for economic gain. Clearly, residents’ misguided beliefs that foisting children on to men to obtain money to support their families, and that it is ‘just a little sex’, which is not hurting them, plays a significant role in sex predators escaping penalties under the law.

Another shocking revelation (‘My baby’s baby! – Eleven-year-old pregnant after sexually assaulted by two adult men’ – March 15, 2015) was that a 12-year-old girl from rural Clarendon is, reportedly pregnant by her 52-year-old relative. No amount of remorse can absolve an incestuous perpetrator of such a crime.

What could a grown man possibly want with a child? Can any right-thinking member of society know or even suspect that an adult is sexually grooming, or having intercourse with a child, and not report it? Has society gone mad?

 Abuse within the church

The Office of the Children’s Advocate recently revealed a disturbing development in some churches where deacons, elders and prayer warriors are also sexually abusing our children. The Church is a place of worship where conformity to ideals of human conduct is expected; where lost and troubled souls seek salvation. If men of the cloth are preying upon the vulnerable in our society, who, then, can we trust for unimpeachable rectitude and integrity?

The law must be harshly enforced upon parents, guardians and community members who facilitate and conceal child abuse. We all have a duty under the Child Care and Protection Act, to protect ALL children and report child abuse. An intensive public education drive on the subject of child abuse is imperative.

It is critical for victims to report abuse and supply statements to the authorities for criminal prosecutions to be carried out. Children must confide in persons they trust such as guidance counsellors, teachers and other civic leaders, about their concerns. Incompetent and inadequate investigations, failure to report, and delays in the justice system should never be reasons for sex predators to roam unabated in our society.

By Dujon Russell

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