Four-year-old girl dies after being assaulted in the Bahamas
A four-year-old girl died after being assaulted, and a man and woman were arrested, police reported on the weekend.
Police said the child, a resident of Major Subdivision on New Providence, was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital unresponsive around 5 p.m. Friday.
She sustained “several injuries to her body”.
Police labelled the incident a “suspicious death” and said they would await an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.
The incident sparked widespread outrage and conversation.
Bahamas Crisis Centre Director Dr Sandra Dean-Patterson described it as her worst nightmare.
Speaking with reporters yesterday, she said, “At the centre, we always say that our worst nightmare is for a child to die as a result of some abuse or some violation.
“And this points to the need for our continued awareness-raising, consciousness-raising and making the whole community alert to the fact that this can happen.”
Dean-Patterson said the length of time for cases to be heard makes it difficult to get convictions.
“We just need to do more,” she said.
“It’s good that the community is in an uproar and making noise about it, but the thing is not to talk about increasing penalties because the penalty is already there — you can get up to life imprisonment for this kind of crime.
“But the problem is the way the system responds and deals with it is what I think gives it the ability to continue.”
She added, “The longer you have the period between the time of a report and the time that that case reaches the Supreme Court, the less likely you are to get a conviction because you know you cannot have children waiting for five, six, seven years to tell their story or to be available to relive their traumatization.
“And I support the chief justice’s call for a separate sexual offences court so that we could deal with it.”
Patterson noted that the response of police and Department of Social Services officials could be improved in such matters.
“There are things that we can do and should do and, hopefully, this case can galvanize our government to come together and have a policy that is in place to respond effectively to this.”
Minister of Social Services Obie Wilchcombe said yesterday the incident demonstrates the “fractured state of the moral and social fabric of our country”.
Police have not said whether the four-year-old was sexually assaulted, he said in a statement.
“Social and moral malnourishment has manifested itself, stealing the innocence of youth, destroying families, communities and could, if not intercepted, destroy our country.
“We must move with aggressive haste. Action must be collective. We all have a role to play.”
Wilchcombe pledged that his ministry will take “immediate steps” to address the issue of child abuse.
“We will review and ensure all legislation about child protection are reflective of the reality of a changed Bahamas,” he said.
“[We will] strengthen the management and security at all state child care facilities and introduce a new paradigm for surveillance of the children particularly when off the facility grounds.
“[We will] introduce a major public relations campaign for public education to send the message that our children come first.”
Though police have not publicly said whether the four-year-old was sexually assaulted, Minister of Transport and Housing JoBeth Coleby-Davis said on Twitter yesterday that more needs to be done to fight sexual abuse through legislation and policy.
“As a mother of a young girl, I am deeply saddened by the news of an assault [of] a four-year-old girl, which resulted in her succumbing to her injuries,” she said.
“While I join your call for justice, more must be done through legislation and policies in the fight against sexual abuse.”
Coleby-Davis added, “My colleague Minister [of State for Legal Affairs] Jomo Campbell spoke about instituting a sexual offenders court and I stand in support of this initiative and will do what I can to see that it happens within this term.”
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