KEVON FELMINE & KALIFA CLYNE
Public outrage over the abuse of a toddler in an online video eventually helped police arrest a 32-year-old suspect and his 21-year-old Jamaican common-law-wife.
The cops stormed a Vistabella apartment and arrested the two after cyber technology narrowed down the area where they were staying and residents in the community gave them a tip-off after recognising the main suspect from seeing him in reports on the incident the night before in the media and in online posts.
The couple, who were hiding out at a friend’s apartment at Manjack Street, were preparing to leave for another location around 1.25 pm when detectives found them.
Both were taken to the San Fernando CID and were awaiting transfer to the Child Protection Unit in the Northern Division. They both face charges related to cruelty as provided for under the new Childrens’ Act.
The troubling video uploaded to social media and later aired on television showed the man abusing his two-year-old step daughter.
In the two-minute, 12-second video, the man is seen slapping the crying child to the ground, each time she refused to drink her milk, even blaming her for the abuse. He later told the woman he did not need to beat the child like that as her mother knew she did not like that kind of milk.
Relatives allege that the man, who last year lost his child while his wife was six months’ pregnant, is accustomed abusing the child. The incident took place at his St Joseph home on Tuesday during one of the child’s regular visits, as the couple occasionally look after the little girl.
Since the video aired, Southern Division operational teams had been conducting surveillance on the couple after they got word that they were hiding out in the Marabella district.
When cyber crime specialist PC Harrypersad pinpointed the location, San Fernando CID officers — PCs Bacchus, Mungal, Goddard, Rampersad and Snaggs — stormed one of the upper apartments of the two-storey building after a man matching the description of the male suspect came outside briefly.
According to police sources, the couple spent the night at the apartment belonging to a friend and had already packed their bags to leave. The tenant of the apartment was not home at the time.
A Nissan Sunny B-15 parked in the yard, which police believed was used by the suspects, was impounded to the San Fernando Police Station.
PM outraged
The incident was discussed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press conference at the Office of the PM, St Clair.
Rowley said he was speaking specifically to the issues of gender and children and hinted at a possible expansion or reorganisation of the Cabinet portfolios to place a bigger emphasis on the issues of gender and children in light of the case.
Referring specifically to the video of the abuse of the young girl, Rowley said: “I don’t know if that horrendous video, it is being said it is local, but the treatment of that child by an adult reinforces the concerns of all of us that many are facing some horrible conditions and the focus ought never to be lost or thought to be lost and if it is in the area where children’s issues are to be focused.”
The gender portfolio currently falls under the Ministry of Social Development.
He added: “While going through that in my mind in the last few days there was an incident last night (Wednesday) that crystallised for me the need to maintain a focus at the national level and ensure there is participation on the national level on issues relating to children.
“If the views are that such issues are lost in the Cabinet configuration then I certainly want to look at that again and I am going to do that and if some adjustment is required to effect greater focus then that would be part of the exercise to accompany adjustment.”
Also contacted yesterday, president of the Network of NGOs of T&T for the Advancement of Women, Hazel Brown, said she was happy at the news of Rowley’s announcement. She said stakeholders had been quietly discussing the issues and had agreed there was need to consider the placement of the gender function.
“We have been formulating a justification for its location in the ministry of planning,” she said.
She said within the Ministry of Planning gender issues could be reflected in many areas, including labour, education or energy.
“I am pleased,” she added.