Two officers from the Ministry of Human Services’ Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) are to be dismissed following a probe into the body’s failure to assist abused 16-year-old Neesa Lalita Gopaul who had approached the agency for help before she was brutally murdered.
According to reliable information reaching this newspaper, several other individuals will also face disciplinary action. The report, which was presented to Minister Priya Manickchand on Thursday, is to be made public on Monday.
Addressing the media at a press briefing at the Office of the President yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo said he was in full agreement with the recommendations of the report though he did not divulge any information it contained. “Minister Manickchand yesterday (Thursday) got a report which examined whether her officers acted properly when dealing with this case. The conclusion is that many of them did not and the report has recommended some actions against those persons.”
Jagdeo described Gopaul’s killing as a “horrific act” and “beyond brutal.” He said that many failures surfaced in the case and added that too often public officials worry about being penalised for acts of commission and end up not acting. According to him, failures were obvious throughout all of the child’s attempts to get help. “We need to hold public servants responsible for acts of omission when they don’t do their jobs. Maybe if we do this often enough those people who seek help of the state when they are in desperate circumstances, they may be able to extend the help to them in a timely fashion,” he stated.
Jagdeo said an investigation was also done to see if Gopaul’s school, Queen’s College, had met its responsibilities to the child and a report which is to be made public soon is now with Education Minister Shaik Baksh.
According to Jagdeo, the Neesa Gopaul issue was one that affected the “conscience of the nation” with another being the recent spate of maternal deaths. He acknowledged that not every maternal death is due to negligence since complications could arise during pregnancies. However, he stated that those guilty of negligence should not be allowed to slip under that excuse. “We should not allow the sector to protect itself by giving blanket explanations that this is all caused because of complications in the pregnancy. So I’ve said to the ministry I want detailed, independent investigations and those people who are negligent must face the brunt of disciplinary action too,” Jagdeo declared. He noted that the Cabinet had dealt with both issues and he had called for “serious and public action” on both matters. “There shall be no cover up because often sectors like to cover up things and they couch it in technical language that laymen can’t understand,” the president said.
There were reports that the abuse of Gopaul was brought to the attention of the CCPA by teachers of Queen’s College who had observed marks of violence on her body. The teenager had also reported acts of abuse to the teachers and after the agency became involved, she was removed from her mother’s home and placed in the care of her grandparents. However, the mother later took the child from the grandparents and the agency’s officers reportedly had no further contact with her as whenever they visited the home they were met with locked gates. They were also reportedly prevented from interviewing the child at her school.
Additionally, several months ago Gopaul and her mother had made reports of assault and abuse to police at Leonora but about a month before her death the teen returned to the station claiming that the allegations she made were false, Commander of Police ‘D’ Division Balram Persaud had said.
Gopaul’s decomposing body was found by picnickers on October 2 in a suitcase in a creek near the abandoned Emerald Tower nature resort off the Linden/Soesdyke Highway. A post-mortem examination revealed that the girl’s head had been clobbered beyond recognition which had led to early reports that the body was headless. Several pieces of metal including two dumbbells which were subsequently linked to her stepfather, Jarvis Small, were also found in the suitcase. Small and the teenager’s mother, Bibi Sharima Gopaul, have since been charged with her murder.
Meanwhile, over the last six weeks three women have died after birthing their children while a pregnant 16-year-old diagnosed with high blood pressure succumbed before delivering. All of the deaths occurred at the New Amsterdam and Skeldon Hospitals in Berbice.
