Chairman of the newly launched Non Governmental Organization (NGO) Coalition for the Protection of Abused Children, Thomas Holmes, is making a special plea for legislative reform as it relates to making sexual offenders known to the public.
Speaking at the official launch of the coalition on Wednesday afternoon, Holmes said that people need to know who the perpetrators of child sexual crimes are and whether they are living among them.
“Seekers of justice promote legislative reform and enforcement,” he said. “We have to let people know who the perpetrators are. So if you commit the crime in Roseau, in Grandbay, wherever in Dominica, your name will tell people that you have done this and be careful, do not trust you, especially when you talk to our children. People will be aware that this person is doing this to children.”
Recently High Court Judge, Bernie Stephenson, issued a ‘gag order’ on the media covering the May Criminal Assizes warning that the names of persons charged or convicted of sexual offenses should not be published.
The judge warned that anyone who goes against the order “will face the full force of this court.”
Her order appeared to contradict Section 38.1 b of the Sexual Offences Act of 1998 which states that the name of an accused can be published “after the person has been tried and convicted of the offence.”
However, the Act makes it clear that the identity of an accused person in a sex crime cannot be published while the matter is before the court.
At the end of the January Criminal Assizes, Stephenson had criticized Dominica News Online for publishing the name of a Canefield bus driver who was convicted of having unlawful sex with a minor and sentenced to nine years in prison. She said then that her position on the matter was not in an effort to to protect the accused but rather the identity of the victim.
Shortly afterwards, advocates against child sex abuse, Delia Cuffy Weekes and Francis Joseph called for the establishment of a sexual offenders register. They were of the view that too much emphasis is being placed on protecting the perpetrators and not the victims.
Meanwhile Officials are also worried that child sexual abuse cases in Dominica are too high.
Gelina Fontaine of Childfund Caribbean noted that 86 cases of of such have been reported on the island for the year 2014.
“We are very concerned that the current child sexual abuse cases are too frequent,” she said. “June has not ended to complete the half year and approximately 86 cases have already been reported. Last year there were 131 cases that means that every two to three days one child was being sexually violated. That is way to frequent for a country of such small population.”
Fontaine pointed out further that in 2014, every four days a child or a youth is being violated noting that the innocence of the children need to be preserved.
She called on the males in society to become protectors of the children and youth.
“We need more males to become protectors, protectors of the children and the women around them rather than perpetrators,” she stated. “In general though, we are a bit concerned about the general case management of survivors we are talking about continuous and general after care of these children while they are in the system trying to seek justice. There needs to be care for the family support system around them.”
It is nothing strange, it is time for change.
This is so rampant in Dominica’s society. I bet there are child molesters who lived in Dominica and now live overseas and they live normal lives…trust me..they live in the US, England and Canada. Hope there is not a statue of limitations so if people want to come out and talk now, we can prosecute those individuals.
Let The Debate Begin And There Must Be Absolute EQUITY IN THE LAW DURING INVESTIGATIONS AND TRIAL AT THE COURT
I am surprised so many children are sexually abused in D/ca. For 2014 so far, too many. There should be none. This could have a life-long effect on the children.
Children are innocent and trusting. They should be shielded from this type of immoral behavior of males who cannot control themselves and feel they must also use children as they do.
If the offender is a relative or someone close to the family, the Law restricts their names being made public so as to protect the children. However, not everyone should be protected if they are not related to the family/children.
It is a serious offense to sexually abuse children. Those who sexually abuse children are mentally sick. They are called pedophiles and could re-offend. They should not be exempt from being punished by the Law. They should know if they sexually offend children they will bear the consequences of their action.
The names of those who do not have a close relationship with the parents and children should be made public and entered into a registry of sex offenders. As with every system it will take time to establish one. I hope one day this will be established.
In order to avoid being sexually abused, parents will have to educate their children. They should not leave their children with strangers and instruct them not to speak to strangers. Should those strangers speak to them or try to come near them, they should do their utmost to get out of their way; out of their presence.
Some of this abuse could be occurring in the home by some partners of their mothers, by relatives or neighbors. Now that parents are more aware of this, they should guard their children.
Gone are the days when mothers did not work. They stayed home and there was always someone in the home. Today, some mothers are employed. There are times they have to go shopping, for appointments and leave their children with someone who may molest them.
In this part of the world I reside, parents take their children shopping; even when they have a medical and dental appointment. A few of those places have a day care where the children could wait and play until their parents are ready to leave.
The stores are filled with children, babies also and prams. Those who can walk run around the stores. Sometimes they have to be dodged. It is a sort of outing for them who love to be outside and of course need their exercise. D/can parents will have to take their small children with them.
In addition, those who have children and are employed, the government should construct day care centres or a central one where parents could leave their children with reliable and responsible authorities and pick them up on their way home. They will not have to worry about their young children being left with irresponsible people and wonder what is occurring behind their back.
Yes! It costs money but it is food for thought and consideration. The government and the people must find a way to eradicate this crime from society. Children are vulnerable and are to be protected from all sorts of harm. This is the parents’ responsibility.
expose them. we wil be supprised to see who make it on the list.
Publish, I want to know who does this nasty stuff!
And 1 more thing,do you know in England the names of the defendants are never mentioned only their initials? I guess not.This is nothing new or strange,we follow English precedent.
The United states has sex registers but they have the attitudes where they don’t mind peoples business like we do here in the carribean even more so dominica,so my people come again I have children too.
Dominicans we are putting the cart before the horse.Let us look at having things in place to properly counsel our your girls and boys after they have been physically and emotionally traumatised so they can properly deal with what has happened to them ………, before we look to further expose them to more public humiliation by opening the way that they could be identified.So lets focus on developing support system for the victims instead of looking how best we could cause them more embarrassment.
NAMING THE DEFENDENT YOU MIGHT AS WELL NAME THE VICTIM TOO.DONT FORGET WE ARE IN A TINY COUNTRY .EDUCATION IS NOT ALL USE ALLYOU COMMOMSENCE Thomas holmes.
Why is this even a question? Who is this woman protecting? This is beyond madness! How is the public protected when theses sick individual are roaming the land? This is a no brainner! All they have to do is register that individual under a sex offender registration once they are found guilty! Get a gad-dam website. Too much madness going on in my country! Man!!!!!
Yes good move publish their names.
I say NAME THEM!!! We need to protect our children. Who’d want to raise their children next door to such preditors??? When they violated their victims they waived their right to remain private. They may have committed their vile act in privacy but what happened in the dark will come out in the light!!!! NAME & shame them!!!
great idea! one doubt I have…….. is it true that the big boys and their relatives will be exempted?
but welfare need to be a more proactive all we see sometimes is meeting meetings meetings and no action. There is a lady who has been walking for years behind welfare for help for she and her children in her frustrating situation and every time she goes there they make up a story that she cant see who she has to see exactly. So sometimes all this talk and no action is of no real sense. thanks if someone care .
The cases are being reported…. What exactly is being done about it?! Pushing for sex offenders registry when the perpetrators are not being convicted? Why not push for a family court??
When the government brings in (a) mandatory reporting of incidences of sexual child abuse, and (a) a sex abuse registry people will begin believing they are serious about the sexual abuse of children.
There should be a law making it mandatory for anybody knowing of a case of sexual child abuse taking place to report it immediately to the police.
Employers and landlords should have access to an updated registry showing the names, addresses, and pictures of all convicted sex offenders. It should be online so it can be accessed world wide. The registry I is necessary because it is not unusual for an offender to literally move across the county or even move to another nation and re-offend. This is especially true of sexual child abuse offenders. I have seen it happen with pedophile school teachers.
Upon conviction their passports should be revoked. Any government data the government has on them should be red flagged.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. International Evangelist.
I have never known a judge to make a law or ruling (whatever you would call it) that goes contrary to or trumps a law that is already on the books.
Maybe I misread the story, or misinterpreted it.
If so
I am sorry.
Its just that if a judge did this in my country there would be a petition going around to have the judge removed from he bench.
Definition:
Democracy: Government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. International Evangelist.
I think they should be public and a red flag should be by thire house to let people know
Not a good idea in Dominica Tex. If we classify all people that have a red flag flying at their house as paedophile we would have a lot of deviants. They may be political deviants, who knows, but in Dominica people state their political affiliation by the colour of the flag they wave. Red is for international socialism, like the world all over.
While I support the coalition in this matter, I still believe they are moving ahead of themselves and they need to start at the bottom and work their way up. The fact that sex offenders were convicted, leads me to believe that they were embarrassed at the court and faced their punishment. My problem is with those that committed the same crime and in some cases never faced the court though in some cases reports were made to the police. I would like to see the Coalition make a push to ensure that ALL are treated equally, whether they are farmers, bus drivers, masons, police officers, presidents, cabinet ministers, politicians, firemen, fishermen, past politicians etc. If all are treated equally I am convinced that others would learn their lesson and we would see a reduction.
judges in Dominica time and time again is doing us a disservice we should organise a demonstration against there stance. whom intrest are they protecting? the criminals?
With respect Judge Bernie Stephenson can not make Acts on the hoof. Acts are the work of parliament, not the whim of a judge and all the judge has to do is abbey by the sexual offences act of 1998, like every other law-abiding citizen. Publish the name of the offender (men and women), after conviction, as a deterrent for further abuse and victimisation particularly of our children. Who can be against that?
The Judge can put a gag on Court proceedings of any nature so as not to prejudice the case and for a fair hearing for the perpetrators. This does not mean that victims are not protected.
Old stupid ancient and antiquated laws..
The law has always been known to protect the criminals.
That’s why I believe in the Babylon system.; an eye for an eye. .and a tooth for a tooth….And parents also need to be more responsible and vigilant ..
No one is going to protect your kids, other than you, and ur law is a systematic FAILURE. .
You have to be a bush lawyer to practice “an eye for an eye” even though some people do practice it against the Law.; taking the Law in your hands.
Our Lord did not teach us to give an eye for an eye. This is retaliation. He said, “Vengeance is MIne. I will repay.” He will in time.
Can the judge put a gag order on the media, when thw law gives a specific time phrame by which the name of the perpertrating rapist can be published.
Is that Judge above the law or is she governed by the same law, she is paid to uphold?
before the law gets the authority, to send them on vaction, at the Holiday Inn ij Stock Farm..
Pm/government need to change them stupid laws in that country
But wait that judge or wa? Well just publish the accuser name and not the victim name ddduuuuhhhhhhh isn’t that right thereprotecting the victim.
How comes we have not heard our legal minds, the Dominica Bar Association, etc, etc challenge Judge Bernie Stephenson issued ‘gag order’ which contradicts Section 38.1 b of the Sexual Offences Act of 1998. That gag order adding fuel to an already flammable situation. 86 reported cases so far and year nah done yet….
since in my grandmother days these things going on they were jut not reported. so the increase is not that more kids getting abused but more are speaking up. i say that is a good thing. cause i know of a child that have been abused. he is a young boy and the family staying quiet cause the embarrassed about the whole thing. so if the release the names of the offender people can easly find out who got abused and that stigma on them for the rest of there life. this is what there are afraid of. so now this guy i walking the street free and proud. so if there names are published now more people will not come fwd.
Excuse me, there is no way the victim (s ) name (s ) will be identified , if names of perpetrators are made known and the process of privacy is upheld , even the offender within a close knitted family, there is no proof to the public , that the victim is a sibling or close relative .
Let’s also have some harsh punishment if you do it once you made a mistake twice is a habit so we need to just do castration.
As a father of two daughters. That is some BS you can make the offenders name public while still protecting the victims. The public need to know.what predators we have among us.
Very sensible. However, it appears that the powers that be, is not thinking. They are protecting themselves.
So Tom will commit the crime in Grand Bay, his identity kept secret. He goes to jail when he is out he moves to Colihaut and does the same thing. No one knew about him. Now we have a sex offender and two victims. Whom are we protecting again? The victim? But the number of victims just grew and we have not published the identity of the offender. PUBLISH IT SELF!!!!! So help me God somebody violate any of my three eggs I have on this earth BERNIE you will deal with me in your court room.
Should it only be “CONVICTED” sex offenders? What about sex offenders who were not convicted because of arrangements that were made or it was settled because of family ties although it was confirmed that the act was committed. What should be done in this case, Mr Holmes? Should that person move to another village and do the same and how are the ppl of the other village gonna know to protect their children from that animal?
We can no0t have the law of the jungle. Only convicted offenders should be name and put on an offenders’ register.
That’s just too much a big number. I am a parent, and I am so upset. Yes we need to identify such persons. Yes I support that fully However, the Government need to consider this. At age 16, we have age of consent. A man can have sex with me. We need to stop that bullshit because I can get pregnant at 16, and I am not entitled to put a simple cross during elections. I cannot have a drivers license but yes I am licensed to have sex anytime. My sweet Dominicans lets us rally behind this for the betterment of our children.
I have never told anyone my entire sexual abuse story and i have never spoken publicly , but every time i hear of something like that i start to cry . One of the biggest problem children face, i think is when their parents or family members don’t believe them ,that’s exactly what happened to me . i was sexual abuse by my adopted father from the age of 7-9 almost every day and night , and every time my mum would come visit me , i tried telling my mum and every time i get close to telling , he would come and hold me and say stuff like why are you crying ? my wife and i are not treating you bad and my mum would just say, oh you don’t have a father and i am trying my best so stop crying and never once stop to figure out why every time she came to visit me i would be crying to leave if i was happy where i was living . Eventually i demanded that i no longer want to leave with them and want to go leave with my grandparents. Now image the horror for me ,. like they say you jump from the frying pan into the fire . from 9-14 i was now being rape by my uncle . my escape from him was having go to high school in Roseau . hmmm , guest what ? now i am living with my mother finally , and more horror . Now her boyfriend is coming at me , he rape me once at 15 and after that i said enough , so i went to tell my neighbor and my neighbor confronted my mum , and guess what mum said ? oh you lying on the man , you doh have father and is he that taking care of you and you lying on the man , she gave me a beating for what she consider a lie and left me and my sister and went to live with her boyfriend .About one year later i realize he raped my 12 year old sister but we have never spoken about that too . I am married now , i have told my husband about my adopted father and my mum boyfriend ,but is ashamed and afraid to tell him or anyone about my uncle for reason that my mum family won’t believe me and also i don’t want to see my uncle go to prison . this has been going on for too long now and i am ready to help stop that . parents always listen to your children ( boy or girl )and look out for the sign . Men/ women let children be children , get women and men your own dam age.