Good work, Justice Elder

THE EDITOR: I am genuinely impressed with all of the reports I have been reading about Justice Pamela Elder. I am glad that we have a very strict female judge who is adamant and passionate about punishing sex offenders. Justice Elder is absolutely right — it is unacceptable to sexually molest children and these crimes must be given a serious sentence.

Incest, rape and sexual molestation of innocent children is rampant in our country and everyone turns a blind eye. In Friday’s papers I read the article “20 years for raping girl, 14” and I was impressed with the sentencing of the crime. However, I then turned a few pages to find “Man guilty of buggering girl, 4.” What a sad world we live in that some people cannot even play with children without losing self control.
We have to do something about all these sick people in our country because anyone who has sexual urges towards children has a mental illness and needs not only punishment for their crimes, but also mental counselling.

I don’t know if our correctional facilities offer that type of counselling, but thank goodness we have at least one judge who cares deeply about this issue and is not afraid to pass some very serious sentences to sex offenders. I just want to tell Justice Elder to keep up the good work — you have a lot of support!

EMILY DICKSON
Port-of-Spain