Woman’s activist and former Coalition Against Domestic Violence head Diana Mahabir-Wyatt has warned citizens that it is against the law for communities to beat child predators and molesters when they are caught.
She said while the beatings would be a reaction against the sexual molester’s actions against the child, society should not take the law into their hands.
Her comments came after it was reported in the T&T Guardian that the Child Protection Unit had launched an investigation into the alleged sexual touching of a three-year-old child by a man believed to be in his late 20’s over the weekend. The suspect was reportedly held by Arouca villagers and badly beaten before being handed over to the police. The child was taken to the Arima District Hospital where she was medically examined, but there was no evidence of sexual penetration.
On Sunday, a video of the incident, reportedly secretly shot by a relative, was leaked on social media.
On Monday, however, Mahabir-Wyatt said in so far as the law is concerned, sexual abuse includes sexual touching, which can be part of a sexual grooming procedure that can lead to more serious aspects.
Although she had not seen the video, she said the punishment by the community “to me… that is a good example of how people in Trinidad deplore the kind of sexual molestation of children that has been taking place in T&T.”
She said what the villagers did “was very understandable because what they are saying is that they abhor this kind of abuse and they want to make it quite clear that if he (suspect) does that again he would be in more trouble.”
Mahabir-Wyatt said such beatings are usually not reported to the police either, but noted that in most cases the police accept the beating of the molester as a form of retribution for the act.
“Breaking the law is wrong and taking the law into your own hands is wrong. But in some cases of child sexual molestation, it is understandable that the public would heap scorn on an act like that and can lead to that sort of response. It’s a reaction.”
If a man is convicted of sexual abuse of a minor and sentenced to jail, Mahabir-Wyatt said they are also beaten by inmates who are fathers, grandfathers and uncles to show their disapproval.
Attorney Gerald Ramdeen said according to the law, where a person touches a child under the age 16 in a sexual way, on summary conviction they can face a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for ten years, while on conviction on indictment they can be imprisoned for 20 years.
Attempts to reach Children’s Authority communications manager Cheryl Moses-Williams on whether they had launched a probe into the video were unsuccessful.