CHILD SEX PROBE

By Maria Bradshaw mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

Police and the Ministry of Education are conducting investigations into a report made by a five-year-old boy that he was removed by a man from the primary school which he attends and sexually assaulted.

The incident allegedly occurred three weeks ago at a St Michael primary school.

When contacted Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw said: “Investigations into the matter have begun and are continuing.”

Inspector Victor Forde, head of the Criminal Investigation Department likewise said investigations were also ongoing from their end.

“A report was made on behalf of a five-year-old boy where there was an allegation of a sexual assault involving him near the compound of a school. The little boy in question was seen by the police and a first interview conducted in the presence of a person considered to be appropriate. Further investigations are being conducted in respect of that matter,” he stated.

The Sunday Sun spoke to the father and grandmother of the child and both said that he complained that a man had held him by his hand while he was playing near the front of the school, took him to an area behind the school, put his hand to his mouth and sexually assaulted him.

The upset father said the child revealed that the man was a “tall red man with glasses.”

“I have been walking around asking people if they have seen anyone who fit that description hanging out around the school,” he pointed out.

The child’s grandmother said the situation had traumatised the boy and his six-year-old sister, who also attends the school and who was the first person the child complained to, while their 28-year-old mother “had tripped out’ and was now hospitalised at the Psychiatric Hospital.

She recalled that the incident happened on a day when the school closed early and parents were contacted to pick up their children.

‘Freaking out’ “My daughter went to the school to pick them up and the boy and he sister run to her and told her what happened. The little boy was freaking out,” she said, adding that her daughter took the child to a polyclinic and then to the police station.

However, she lamented that the mother of three had a mental breakdown four days later.

The grandmother also accused the school of not taking the report seriously.

“I went to the school and the principal say the gate does be closed at all times after the children come into school and the guard does be there 24/7.

“So I went back to the school, walk through the school and back out and the guard ain’t see me yet. I walk back into the school gate again and went to the bottom of the school and the guard only see me when he peep out looking for parents. The gate don’t be locked,” she cried, adding: “I had a witness in a car with me but them saying how it could not happen on the school grounds.”

She said the next week she went to the Ministry of Education to discuss the transfer of the boy and his sister

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from the school and that was when she was informed by an officer that the school had not reported the incident to the ministry.

“The school is not taking responsibility,” the grandmother cried, as she called for cameras to be installed at all schools.

She said she had also conducted her own investigations around the school and had received reports that children had been complaining about a man lingering around and interfering with them.

“I don’t feel as if we are getting any satisfaction,” she said, as she revealed that for several days after the incident people were combing the area around the school “hunting all through the tracks looking for that man. We have to find him somehow by the hook or the crook.”

The grandmother said the incident had left the family in turmoil.

“This thing put a nail through my heart. We are in a state because we don’t even know if the man was watching our movements when we does take the children to school and when we does pick them up. I don’t even know how to explain how this little boy getting on now,” she said, adding that the child was receiving the relevant counselling.

Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw told the Sunday Sun that the matter was being investigated by the ministry.

(FP)