Police should not question children in the presence of alleged abusers

Dear Editor,

Is Guyana becoming like Thailand and Costa Rica where paedophiles can lure poor children with money and cheap gifts so they can have sex with them? Are we selling our children while the police and those in authority look the other way?

The police and social workers should be trained to know that paedophiles prey on children, molest them and threaten them so that they are afraid to tell their parents.

Police should not question children in the presence of the alleged abuser. Of course he is going to deny what he did and of course the children are going to say he didn’t molest them. No one knows what he may have threatened to do to them if they tell anyone. It happens all over the world, it is only when that child becomes an adult that they might have the courage to even talk about what happened to them.

I am surprised that no one in authority is speaking out about this situation. Social workers should be trained to go to schools to educate children about these types of abuses. There should be workshops to educate parents so they can talk to their children.

These children are Guyana’s future, we have to take care of them because when a child is abused he/she grows up with poor self esteem, some of them become addicted to drugs, criminals, prostitutes and some of them even become molesters themselves. I do hope that the Minister of Human Services is going to arrange for these children to get some type of therapy.

Yours faithfully,

Diane Lee