A single-father who left his two-year-old son alone at home to get something for the child to eat was scolded by a magistrate when he appeared in court charged with child neglect.
Micheal Harewood claimed he left the child asleep at his Pemberton Street, La Romaine home without supervision but police found the child wandering along the street by himself.
Harewood, 36, a taxi driver, was charged with negligence by PC Quinton Cupid of the Southern Division Task Force.
The charge stated that on Sunday at Pemberton Street, La Romaine, being the parent of the child, he neglected the child in a manner likely to cause the child suffering or injury to his physical, mental or emotional health.
Relating what happened, prosecutor Cleyon Seedan said around 6.10 pm Cupid and other police officers were on mobile patrol duty along Pemberton Street when he saw the child walking along the road without anyone accompanying him.
When Cupid approached the child and asked him his name he did not answer. Further inquires led Cupid to the home of the child’s mother Vanessa Mohammed who told him the child was staying with his father for a period of time.
Cupid called the father on his cellphone and a short time after the father arrived at Pemberton Street. When told that his son was found wandering alone on the road, he said, “I leave him sleeping for less than an hour.”
Harewood’s attorney Ainsley Lucky said his client “left the infant for 20 minutes. He left the child asleep in the house and he elected to step out and pick up some food for the child.”
“So you left a two-year-old unattended?” magistrate Alicia Chankar asked.
“Do you know how many things could happen in 20 minutes?”
Harewood said there was another tenant in the yard, but not in his home. The father, who has two other children from another relationship, said his son stays with him and he sends him to a daycare. “I do everything for him,” said the father.
However, the magistrate said, “He owes a duty of care for the child, yet he leaves a two-year-old unattended and alone in the house. The child has time to get up, open the door, go outside and reach (on the road),” she said.
Harewood was placed on three-year bond in the sum of $5,000 to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.