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And a Mirror report in 1999 revealed: “Young boys being raped
by elders is a common occurrence at the Catholic-run St. Dominic’s
Home for Children.
“Investigators probing a recent incident where an eight-year-old
boy is reported to have been raped by a 16-year-old, came face-to-face
with the reality that sexual abuse of boys, and girls, too, was
the norm at the Belmont-based Home.
“Is plenty boys getting rape here all the time, investigators
discovered.
“They found that there were recent incidents and many, many
more over the years.”
According to the report, the 16-year-old later confessed that he,
too, had been previously raped.
It added: “There is a vicious circle of abuse of boys.
“Big boys are raping little boys, and the big boys are themselves
being raped by bigger boys and others.
“When the little boys get older, they then begin practising
their sex on the newer, smaller boys and so it goes on and on.
“A recent report shows this to be happening.
“It is terrible and the authorities are covering it up.”
At the time, the manager of the Home Sister Marina Serrette told
Mirror: “There is no good to come out from saying anything
about this.
“I have nothing to say.”
And a January 10, 1997 Cabinet-appointed Task Force report published
exclusively in the Mirror on December 19, 1997 also made the shocking
revelations about St. Dominic’s: “A male member of staff
is alleged to have perpetrated multiple sexual acts with a number
of children.
“These included forced buggery, encouraging boys to have sex
with each other while he watched and encouraging the children to
‘play’ with him.”
The report compiled by a committee headed by victimologist Robert
Sabga, and including then Independent Senator Diana Mahabir-Wyatt
added: “One boy finally disclosed all and the alleged perpetrator
was confronted.
“He admitted his actions and explained that he, too, had been
abused while an inmate at St. Dominic’s.
“The matter was then promptly swept under the carpet and no
counselling or follow-up with the children involved was done, ostensibly
to protect the reputation of the Home.”
The report added: “Discreet inquiries revealed that the man
is reputed to have molested 30 to 40 boys.”
At the time, the school had a population of about 100 boys and 100
girls ranging in ages four to 17.
A Catholic priest, Fr. Gervais Girod, who worked at the institution,
also spoke to the Task Force about “abuse, sexual activity,
increased homosexuality and other acts of dishonest behaviour”
at St. Dominic’s.
“Staff has to protect the younger boys from the older boys.”
However, a second social worker told Mirror: “What has been
happening and still happening at the Children’s Homes is one
thing, but the situation with street children is also a major cause
of concern.
“Some male street children are now willing participants of
their own rape mainly for survival.
“They are lured by sick men into this kind of activity and
some accept it as the way out of starvation and for their general
survival.
“Big men are taking advantage of these homeless boys and tuning
them into their sex slaves.
“Those little boys are quietly suffering.
“We always hear about rape of women, but boys are also being
raped on an almost daily basis.”
She added: “I have had to deal with more than one parent whose
sons were interfered with.
“They always want to keep it quiet because of the shame associated
with the raping of men.
“Hence, the rapists are left to go free to rape other boys
again.
“No mother or father wants the neighbours to know that their
son was raped by a man.
“The child will be taunted for life by his peers and the psychological
effects will be worse.
“So the incidents are always covered-up.”
She also spoke out about the radio disc jockey who arrange programmes
and competitions to lure little boys to his den.
“He always has two or three at his side carrying his bags
and other equipment,” she revealed.
“A mother came to me recently in tears to complain about her
pretty little son who had become the bag boy of the DJ.
“It was a real case of another little boy being abused.
“The only difference is that the DJ and other so-called decent
men like him operate at a “higher level” than the dirty
men who raped and killed Akiel Chambers, Dane Andrews and Sean Lake.”
Mirror was also told: “Many times, the attackers themselves
were raped so it is a cycle perpetuating itself.
“That is why we have to give counselling not only to the survivors
of the attacks, but also to the attackers.
“The boys who will be charged with Lake’s buggering
and murder will need to be counselled.
“As much as society is disgusted with the crime and are calling
for quick justice like hanging them, we have to understand that
children might be involved as the offenders and they may one day
return to the society, hence it is our duty to give them professional
care also.”
One of the social workers added: “The authorities never acted
on that Task Force Report on homosexuality and ills at the Children’s
Home.
“Maybe we are now reaping the ‘rewards’ of those
incidents; maybe the rapes and murders of Lake, Akiel and Dane are
the rewards of our failure to act on that explosive report.”
Lake, a Second Year student of Waterloo Hindu Primary School was
found beaten and buggered on Wednesday morning, in a cane field,
some 300 feet from his home.
He went missing two days earlier; he is an American.
A cane stalk was also plunged into the toddler’s body by his
attackers.
Three boys- 14, 16 and 17-year-olds of the area have been detained
by police for the crime, described as one of the most brutal and
heinous by investors.
He is the third little boy who be found buggered and murdered in
Trinidad over a period of a few years.
The first was 11-year-old Akiel Chambers, whose body was found in
at the bottom of a swimming pool at his upscale Maraval home on
May 23, 1998.
Last February 1, the body of New Grant Presbyterian School pupil
Dane Andrews, 12, was found in a river near to his Monkey Town,
Princes Town home.
He, too, was buggered.
No one has as yet been charged for either the Chambers or the Andrews
murders.
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