Chester Sam­bra­no

The po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to abuse at chil­dren’s homes around the coun­try is said to be “slow­ly pro­gress­ing.”

In April this year, a re­port from a com­mit­tee chaired by re­tired Jus­tice Ju­dith Jones was laid in Par­lia­ment af­ter a probe of the op­er­a­tions of chil­dren’s homes across the coun­try. It re­vealed de­tails of all forms of abuse, in­clud­ing phys­i­cal and sex­u­al.

On May 16, act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob an­nounced the ap­point­ment of a spe­cial team to probe the al­le­ga­tions made in the re­port, as well as one from the Robert Sab­ga Task Force from 1997, which was brought to light again re­cent­ly in light of the con­tents re­vealed from the Ju­dith Jones re­port.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice over­see­ing the team Sharon Coop­er told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that peo­ple are cur­rent­ly be­ing in­ter­viewed.

“Present­ly, we are at the point of ac­quir­ing state­ments to ob­tain ev­i­dence,” she ex­plained.

Guardian Me­dia sought to find out how many peo­ple have been in­ter­viewed to date, but ACP Coop­er said at this time she can­not pro­vide those fig­ures.

“All per­sons’ in­for­ma­tion is be­ing treat­ed un­der the con­fi­den­tial cov­er,” she added.

But with grow­ing con­cerns over the fact that many of the al­leged vic­tims are still at the homes where the al­leged per­pe­tra­tors may be still em­ployed, Guardian Me­dia asked what steps have been tak­en to re­move ei­ther par­ties from the fa­cil­i­ties.

Coop­er replied say­ing that “present­ly, there is no need to re­lo­cate any­one.”

ACP Coop­er was asked what she meant by this and aid, “At this time, none of the per­sons in­ter­viewed is in harm’s way.”

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On May 25, dur­ing a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on So­cial Ser­vices and Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion, Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Ja­cob said the inves­tiga­tive team was in the ear­ly stage of its in­ves­ti­ga­tions and up to that time, they had not iden­ti­fied peo­ple with­in the chil­dren’s homes that they can rec­om­mend be­ing re­moved from the in­sti­tu­tions im­me­di­ate­ly.

In June 2021, the Gov­ern­ment, through the Min­istry of Gen­der and Child Af­fairs, launched an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the long-stand­ing prob­lem of abuse of chil­dren at chil­dren’s homes, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­tres and oth­er sim­i­lar in­sti­tu­tions which pro­vide res­i­den­tial care for chil­dren.

The Cab­i­net al­so agreed to the ap­point­ment of an 11-mem­ber in­ves­ti­ga­tion team head­ed by re­tired Jus­tice Jones to con­duct the in­ves­ti­ga­tion with­in a four-month time­frame.

In terms of the Robert Sab­ga re­port, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley pub­licly called on Ja­cob to lo­cate and act on it af­ter its con­tents were made pub­lic.

“I am to­day pub­licly call­ing on the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice to take im­me­di­ate steps to find this Sab­ga Re­port and the ev­i­dence of all those who were aware of this fright­en­ing sit­u­a­tion and take all nec­es­sary ac­tion against all who have been im­pli­cat­ed in or with these very shock­ing rev­e­la­tions as pub­lished,” Row­ley said.

In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Re­source Net­work (IWRN) pres­i­dent Adri­ana San­drine-Rat­tan agreed with the Prime Min­is­ter’s call.

How­ev­er, she lament­ed that “the time has come to stop the fin­ger-point­ing and in­stead ex­pend en­er­gies on com­ing to­geth­er with ideas/so­lu­tions aimed at pro­tect­ing the na­tion’s chil­dren.”

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