Daddy or uncle could be the father

The girl, who provided her name and address, said she is now in a relationship with an uncle and is pregnant but does not know if it is for her father or his brother.

Commenting on the video, the Children’s Authority, in a release said, the content of one of the videos was “very disturbing.” As soon as the authority found out about the video on social media, the release said the authority’s Emergency Response Team was alerted and the Tobago branch of the Child Protection Unit was contacted to investigate.

The TTPS has assured that the matter was being investigated, but could provide no status update at press time. Meanwhile the Children’s Authority said it was “treating the matter with the established procedures, while affording it the sensitivity that it deserves for the protection and privacy of the child involved.” In the first video, the child gave details of the life she has been living.

She said since she was eight years old her father began having sexual intercourse with her.

She said, he was “interfering with me in a way that any father shouldn’t interfere with his daughter.” When she told her mother and grandmother about what she had been going through, she said, they both accused her of lying. “Why are you lying. She, herself (referring to her mother) couldn’t believe it. And everybody in the house thought I was lying,” she said. There were times when her father’s friends, she said, “will come over and they will have oral sex with me.

Even at times, I see them giving my father money.

I believe my father have a part to play with that.” She said she approached an uncle who admitted that he confronted the girl’s father.

She also admitted that she was in a sexual relationship with the uncle, who she says comforts her, and she feels love for him. She further admitted that she was pregnant. “Today, I am not sure if it is my uncle’s child or my father’s,” she said.

The uncle appeared in a second video holding the girl’s hand. He said he loved the girl and was not afraid of what the authorities would have to say. He said he wanted the girl to live a normal life. He said he was ashamed of what he did, but he will take care of her. He said, “She by me.” There appeared to have been a third person asking questions. When asked if he found out that the baby was not his what he will do, the video was cut off.

Meanwhile, the Children’s Authority yesterday continued to plead with parents and guardians to pay close attention to stories of abuse from their children and not to dismiss their claims of abuse as untruths. Responding positively to a child’s claim, the authority said, can save the child from further harm.

All incidents of child abuse should be reported to the police or to the authority’s hotline, 996 or 800-2014.