National advocate: Govt turning a blind eye to child abuse

With several child sexual abuse cases being brought before the law courts in recent weeks, outspoken child advocate Shelly Ross has accused the authorities of failing the nation’s children by not paying attention to the crimes.

Ross said there are too many reported and unreported child abuse cases because no one is being held accountable.

She added that it is a shame that persons charged for child sexual abuse appear to be receiving what can be described as slap on the wrist sentences.

Ross declared: “Barbados is not paying attention to it. The authorities are not paying attention to it. The Child Care Board is failing the children of Barbados. And it is my opinion they do not care. Everybody is getting a salary at the end of the month and they are not doing the job they are supposed to be doing. We have parents not paying attention to it because they too are covering it up because they don’t want the secret out.

“It is happening too often in Barbados. Lots of us who are aware know that it is rampant and we know that it is rampant because the offenders are not really paying for what they are doing to the victims. They are getting away with what they are doing. We have people, from medical doctors down, that are raping or sexually assaulting young people and they are not being held accountable for it. If we are not holding these people accountable, it is going to continue.

“So, we have situations in Barbados where our social workers, probation officers, or whoever, are seeing cases of families where children are being abused.”

On Tuesday, four days into ‑ 2021, two men were remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds after appearing before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes on charges of sexually assaulting two children, with one of the incidents resulting in an 11-year-old girl becoming pregnant.

In April, a 57-year-old Stephen Ian Rock received seven years and 141 days sentence for raping a boy, filming the act and collecting pornographic images of the child among hundreds of explicit pictures of young males. Rock carried out the act 14 years ago.

The activist contended that there are children attending school showing signs of sexual abuse and some schools are failing to investigate and report to relevant authorities.

Ross suggested that in several cases, family members involved in child abuse cases are in serious need of evaluation and mental health help. She accused social workers and authorities of failing to properly investigate the background, history and mental wellbeing of child sexual abuse offenders who are often left to go back into the environment they came from without any intervention.

She said: “We need a sex registry. The Attorney General [Dale Marshall] said Barbados is too small for that. It might be small for a sex registry. But it isn’t too small for children to be raped and assaulted all the time. So he could choose which one is more important. Yes, we are a small nation and everybody will know who does it. But we need to know, and I need to know who is living next door to me.

“I need to know who is going into the schools and getting jobs in teaching, or music or sports. Nobody is being held accountable and the few who are being held getting a slap on the wrist and they can go and do it again next year and a few years from now because there is no seriousness to the issue in Barbados. The people that are being seriously affected are the children. And some of these children are growing up to be offenders.”

(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)