A Linden parent is calling for a speedy investigation into the allegation that a police officer sexually abused a group of juveniles who were taken to the Wismar Police station by a schools’ welfare officer following a report against them last month.
When contacted the Schools’ Welfare Unit said it was aware of the issue and was awaiting a report from the police. The police at Linden said yesterday that investigators from George-town had gone to Linden just yesterday and had started to take statements from the boys.
In relating the incident, the parent said that the boys aged 13 and 14 years old, were taken to the police station by the welfare officer who filed a report against the boys. They were informed that the matter was a serious one which required them to be at the station for some time.
The investigation started some time after 11 am and ended after 8 pm. The boys’ parents were advised to get them out of their school uniforms. They complied and the boys were left in the custody and care of the police and the schools’ welfare officer. The parent, on returning to the station, was told that the boys were being taken in for questioning individually.
“The schools’ welfare officer had already left the station,” the parent said and the boys were still being questioned. As it grew late the boys were sent home and as they left the station the last few made the revelation.
“They started talking about it even before we left the station and continued to give more details as we were walking along the street. All of them said that they were made to take out their penises and pump [masturbate] in front the police officer and they said that he told them if they didn’t do it he was going to put them in the lockups,” the parent alleged. “My son does not live with me and he had already left for home so I asked him the next morning and he told me the same thing,” the parent further said.
The matter was reported the following day to the Department of Education Schools’ Welfare Unit, which then took the matter to the commandant of the Police ‘E & F’ Division at Mackenzie. The parent said that the welfare unit said it was informed that the issue was taken to the DPP in Georgetown and that an investigation would have been carried out.
“What is bothering me is that no one is calling us on this issue,” the parent said. “The welfare officer took my son and the others to have the law deal with them for committing an offence but what we got in turn is the law committing an offence against our children and this could never be fair. If my child did something wrong he must understand that there are consequences but the consequence could never be abuse at the hand of a law enforcing agent.”
