Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

SOCIETY-TRINIDAD: Officials Slow to Probe Possible Sexual Assault

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Sep 10 2003 (IPS) - Five years ago, 11-year-old Akiel Chambers went to a birthday party at an upscale residence in the city and never returned home. His body was found at the bottom of a swimming pool at the house the next morning.

A coroner’s inquest later concluded that ”no one was liable for any offence” as a result of the "accidental" death.

But new facts are emerging that the young boy was sexually molested and that the police never treated the case as a homicide.

If, as it appears, the justice system was slow to investigate the possibility of sexual assault, it only reflects reluctance in the larger society of Trinidad and Tobago to deal with the matter, say some observers and experts.

"People don’t go to the police because they tell them to take it to court," said Sandra Mata-Theodore, a co-ordinator and counsellor with the Rape Crisis Society, which provides 24-hour counselling for matters related to sexual and domestic violence.

”They don’t want to do that because very often the abuser is the sole bread winner in the family; they don’t want to lose him and they don’t want to destroy the family," Mata-Theodore said in an interview.

According to the Society, in 1998 it dealt with 35 complaints and one year later, 13 incidents. Twenty cases were registered in 2000 and 2001.

It is difficult to get accurate figures from the police since the heading ”domestic violence” includes child sexual abuse cases.

In many instances, the Society has had no choice but to return the victim back to the same situation, because there are no safe homes for them, according to Mata-Theodore.

"We have been trying to get a place where we can place those children, somewhere they can be safe but our funds are limited."

Such action is criticised by the head of the Community Police Unit, Winston Cooper. "Those NGOs are working under the premise that they are looking after the sanctity of the child and on the grounds of confidentiality refuse to make the reports. That is against the law," he told IPS.

According to the Sexual Offences Act, anyone with evidence of a sexual offence being committed on a minor is obliged to report it or risk being charged themselves, he added.

"While they adopt that position of confidentiality, the paedophiles continue to ravage the country. They continue to create paedophiles on the premise that they respect the confidence of the client and the victim."

"But they are just failing to have the matter dealt with," he added.

But child psychologist Karen Moore says that most of the government-run institutions also provide a haven for abuse.

"I am not saying it is always the staff doing the abusing, but there are a lot of children who come into the homes who have been abused on the outside and in turn abuse other children," she told reporters recently.

"These children are going to leave these homes and will be back in society," she added. "They may not cope. A lot of them will become prostitutes; some will go on drugs. It will be far more expensive than if things are put in place now.”

Over the last few weeks, the local media have published a number of investigative articles on Akiel’s case and recently Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma promised to intervene to expedite a long delayed second inquest being sought by Akiel’s relatives.

In one of the articles, Sharma vowed to pursue the matter as part of his public bid to speed up the delivery of the justice system.

There have been no less than 17 adjournments in attempts to open a second inquest, with the latest postponement coming Aug. 11, when only two of the 17 witnesses were present.

According to newspaper reports, the police have maintained that the alleged incidents of sexual molestation and the mysterious drowning were separate and not connected.

But at the heart of the new evidence is the findings by forensic pathologist Dr. Hughvon Des Vignes, who was hired by Akiel’s family to perform a post-mortem four days after the body was recovered.

Des Vignes concluded the child was smothered in the act of sexual molestation.

Moore says it is important to find out what happened in order to break the secrecy around sexual abuse.

”It must be the last time that a child dies like that. What’s more, it is possible that Akiel was not the only sexually abused one in the group” at the party, she added.