Dad: Where is my daughter?

A 52-YEAR-OLD Penal man, whose 15-year-old daughter was detained by police hours after he reported her missing, is now calling on the Minister of National Security Martin Joseph and Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul to investigate the conduct of police in the Southwestern Division, after his daughter went missing while in police custody. The worried man, who spoke to Newsday on the basis of strict anonymity, said his 15-year-old daughter ran away from home on Sunday August 22 and he reported her missing to the Penal police. That same day, officers detained the teen and notified her parents. The father said his daughter, a pupil of Holy Faith Convent, Penal, left home with her alleged 17-year-old boyfriend around 12.15 am. Around 6.30 in the evening, a policeman called saying his daughter was found and the family should come to get her at the Penal station.

The man said his wife went to the station and met their daughter and a counsellor. Her alleged boyfriend was not at the station. After a discussion with the counsellor, policemen and the child, the officers told the child’s mother they would detain her (the child) for the night, and then she would appear before a Siparia magistrate charged with running away. Believing that the child would be well taken care of for the night, the woman went home. The man said when he and his wife went to court the following Monday, their daughter was not there. On Tuesday August 24, a police sergeant called and advised him to report the child as “missing.” “The police cannot account for my daughter since then. She was last in their custody,” the father said. On Thursday August 26, the matter was again called in the Second Siparia Magistrates’ Court but his daughter was nowhere to be found.

The worried father said when he told the magistrate what had happened, the magistrate in turn ordered an inquiry into the disappearance of the teen and the matter was adjourned to today. “Where is my child? I am questioning the function of the Senior Superintendent in charge of the Southwestern Division. I want to know, apart from where my daughter is, if these officers are capable and competent of running this division efficiently,” the worried man said. “This is another issue of Mohess Road where the police failed to respond and a man was killed,” he said, alluding to the recent murder of Sylvan Lochan, who was found by police lying in a pool of blood at his (Lochan) home hours after he called the police begging for help. Lochan lived within striking distance of three police stations. The man said he had since sent correspondence to Snr Supt Myers, CoP Trevor Paul and National Security Minister Martin Joseph and was awaiting a response.