Boy claims sexual assault

The motorist who was on his way to work at about 8.40 am, saw the schoolboy in uniform walking along the Uriah Butler Highway near Grand Bazaar with a water bottle in his hand.

The boy who appeared to be in a dazed state of mind was asked by the motorist why he was not at school and the child replied that he was on his way to meet his mother who works in Port-of- Spain.

The driver told Newsday he told the child that Port-of-Spain is in the other direction and further questioned him as to why he was on his way to met his mother when the boy, nine, replied that he was fed up of the abuse at the hands of a male teacher at a Government Primary School.

According to the motorist, “the child told me that when he refused to do “ting” with the teacher he was severely beaten and in some instances was unable to even sit.”

The angry motorist who is a father of three boys, said he dialled 999 and reported the matter to police officers who responded within a short time. He said when officers arrived the boy reported the sexual and physical abuse to them and then the boy was taken back to the school by the officers with the motorist in tow. He said that on arrival at the school compound the boy was taken to the classroom of the alleged offender and the boy confronted the teacher in front of the police officer accusing the teacher of the sexual and physical abuse.

According to the motorist sometime later, an official of the school arrived and said that he would take care of the situation and minutes later the boy’s mother arrived at the school in a distraught state of mind and took her son away.

The motorist said he remained flabbergasted that the officers did not take a statement from the child or even take him to a doctor to be medically examined to ascertain if his allegations were true.

The man said he did not sleep all of Thursday night and decided to contact Newsday yesterday about the incident hoping the incident could be published so senior police officers could get involved, locate the boy, have him medically examined and then proceed in whatever direction if the allegations turn out to be true.

Contacted for comment, ACP (Crime) Carlton Alleyne expressed surprise that the boy was not taken to a medical institution to be examined and promised, “I will deal with this because police officers know the procedure and if a report is made, it cannot be left to a principal or official to deal with it. These officers should have dealt with that and the victim should have been taken to a medical institution to ascertain if his claim was true or not.