Child Abuse seminar- Breaking the Cycle
A video showing a seven-year-old girl being sexually abused by the boyfriend of the girl's mother was shown at yesterday's Violence Against Children Conference.The faces were blurred but participants could see the boyfriend videotaping the girl's underwear as she slept.
The perpetrator then ordered the child to pull down her underwear and placed the girl on top of him to engage in intercourse.This video was one of scores which the man compiled over several months as he committed lewd acts against the child, including sodomy, and forcing her to perform oral sex on him, said Margaret Sampson-Browne, manager of the Police Service's Victim and Witness Support Unit (VWSU).
The mother of the child had knowledge of the horror her daughter was experiencing but failed to act, she added.The video, Sampson-Browne said, represented the reality taking place daily in T&T, where children were being destroyed by those who ought to love and protect them and there were some mothers who turned a blind eye, loving the man more than their children.
In another case, Sampson-Browne related a case where a primary schoolgirl was placed at the back of the classroom after being ostracised by her peers because she smelt of urine.
It was only after the unit intervened was it realised the child developed the habit of retaining her urine because each time she would go to the bathroom her father would rape her.
The unit was formed in 2008 and last year 800 people living in central Trinidad sought help from its specially trained officers for several issues, including child sexual abuse and domestic violence.Last January, 200 people from that same division, including children, have been helped by the unit, it was stated.
MORE INFO
Reported sexual offences cases for 2008-2012 as compiled by the VWSU:
2008–14.
2009–35.
2010–98.
2011–118.
2012 (January-July)–86.
