-grandmother

The grandmother of a five-year-old Sophia boy, who was reportedly brutalised by his father, is worried that more than two weeks after she reported the matter to police, nothing has happened.

Paula Gooding, the grandmother and guardian of the child, said that she also reported the matter to the Child Care and Protection Agency of the Ministry of Human Services. They have not yet visited her after promising to do so, she said. Contacted, Ann Greene, Director of the Agency, said that while she would have to check to confirm that a report had been made, once a matter had been brought to the agency’s attention, it would be investigated. She said that there were cases where the agency would have to prioritise based on the seriousness of the matter, although she emphasised that once a report had been made, it would be investigated.

Gooding told this newspaper that on February 17, she dressed her two children as usual (the five year old boy and his four year old sister) and sent them to their father, who lived six houses away, so that he would take them to school. The children’s mother is in jail and they live with Gooding. They attend a nursery school.

However, she said, when her sister called the school to find out if the children were there, the headmistress told her that they were not. Gooding said that she was contacted and they waited until 8pm that day to see if the man would bring the children home.

She said that after waiting for hours, her brother visited the man’s home but he wasn’t at home so he left a message that the man should bring the children home. According to Gooding, her mother and sister went to the home later than night “to talk to him” but were verbally abused. However, she said, upon hearing his great-grandmother’s voice, the five-year-old and his sister ran out of the home. The little girl told them that her father had beaten up her brother, Gooding related. “So when we check see the child eyes, it black and blue and his face was swollen,” she said, noting that his eyes were bloodshot too.

Gooding stated that they made a report to the Sophia police station that very night. She said that the police went to the home but the man had left, and the boy was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital for a medical. A few days later, the police contacted Gooding and said that the man was at the station. She and her sister identified him, but they have heard nothing from the police since, Gooding said.

She told Stabroek News that a policewoman had promised to call them when the man was taken to court but did not hear from her. Apparently, the man had been placed on station bail, Gooding said. She related that they went to the Ministry of Human Services, where photographs were taken of her grandson and they promised to visit the home, but so far she had not seen them.

According to Gooding, the father “does normally box the child,” but never to this extent.

She said that the boy had complained before but they had never reported it and when they talked to the father about it, he would say that he hit his son because he “talk back” to him. She said from what she gleaned from the children, the boy was hit on this occasion because he asked his father when he would drop them to school.

Since the incident, Gooding has not sent back the children to their father and has had no communication with him. To her knowledge, she said, he has never hit his daughter.

Now, more than two weeks after the incident, Gooding said that she was worried about what might happen, since the man had not been charged.