SEAN LUKE may not have been the intended victim of his alleged assailants.

This is the startling claim from a source close to Luke’s family.

Instead, friends and family fear it may have been his three-year-old sister who was the intended target.

The sister has not been seen in public since the brutal killing of her brother.

A child, who was playing by the pond where the alleged incident with Sean occurred, reportedly overheard someone saying that he preferred the three-year-old sister instead, but would have “to settle” for her brother.

Sean, six, was buggered and murdered two weeks ago, a short distance from his Orange Valley, Couva home; a piece of cane was also pushed into him, which ruptured his chest cavity.

He is survived by two siblings.

“The murder has left a sour taste in some people’s mouth; they are angry and frustrated,” said the source.

Fingers are also pointing at the mother of Sean, Pauline Lum Fai.

A close relative of the traumatised family confided to TnT Mirror that she may not have been in her “right state of mind” following a birthday party and went to take a nap.

The Couva police were initially blamed for not responding to Lum Fai’s distress calls to find the missing Sean.

Disciplinary action was reportedly taken against one officer.

“They may not have taken her seriously when she called to say that Sean was missing because someone whom the police may have thought was her habitually called the station,” admitted the relative.

A senior police officer from the station did not want to comment on the situation since it was still under investigation, but said it was his information that Lum Fai may have a certain “social problem”.

The relative contended though that no one, big or small, deserved that kind of death and suggested more care should be taken with younger children to ensure they did not go running off in to any kind of danger since “in this day and age all kind of nastiness happening”.

While the country continues to mourn the brutal killing of Sean, some citizens in the Couva area have also been asking, why did his mother not insist that he stay within sight, since she was going to take a nap?