Abused teen now in Children’s Authority’s care

JANELLE DE SOUZA

As per the court order, the 14-year-old boy who was sexually abused at the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital was removed from the hospital by court and Children’s Authority staff on Thursday night.

The boy, who was at the hospital for about a year, is now in the care of the Children’s Authority at its child support centre after former attorney general Anand Ramlogan filed a suit on October 9 to have the court grant an interim relief to the mother to have the boy removed from St Ann’s.

On Thursday, High Court judge Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams ordered that the boy be removed from St Ann’s that day, placed at the child support centre, and be physically and mentally assessed by a team of doctors attached to the authority, as well as Dr Jacqueline Sharpe.

The decision was handed down in the San Fernando High Court where the boy’s mother sought an injunction to stop her child from being bullied and sexually abused at the hospital.

A source told Newsday the Children’s Authority admitted in court that they knew the boy had been raped by a male patient in the bathroom at the hospital because, about three weeks prior, someone had called the children’s hotline and reported it.

The source said, at St Michael’s Home for Boys, the teen had been sexually abused by staff. He said one staff member was caught by residents of the home and he allowed them to sexually abuse the boy so they would keep the matter a secret.

In her affidavit, the boy’s mother said that in September 2012, when he was nine, she was arrested for child endangerment and the boy and his sister were placed in a home. However, after a few weeks, the manager at the home complained to the court that he was “beyond control” and the magistrate ordered the boy be transferred to the St Michael’s Home for Boys.

The boy had a speech impediment and difficulty learning, but in 2013 his mother noticed he was gaining a lot of weight. She begged the staff at St Michael’s to get the boy medical treatment and he was taken to child psychiatrist, Dr Sharpe, who diagnosed him with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

The Genetics Home Reference website stated that Prader-Willi Syndrome was a complex genetic condition with symptoms such as intellectual impairment and learning disabilities, behavioural problems including temper outbursts, delayed or incomplete puberty, and chronic overeating and obesity.

She said although her son was being bullied and physically abused at the home, he was receiving speech therapy and other medical treatment. However, when the management changed in 2014, these stopped. The bullying and abuse also escalated and he began to be sexually abused so she made several reports to the police.

In October 2016, in an effort to get the boy out of the situation, Dr Sharpe wrote a report to a doctor at St Ann’s asking for the boy to be housed at the hospital temporarily. A few days later, the boy was beaten at the home with a piece of hot iron by another resident and he was taken to St Ann’s.

The woman said she was concerned that, at the hospital, her son was not being educated, was still being beaten and placed in seclusion for “bad behaviour,” and was given medication that was not appropriate for his condition.

In addition, on recent visits, she was told he was no longer allowed to use his phone, be visited by his younger sisters and she could not take any pictures of him.

Women and children’s rights activist Diana Mahabir-Wyatt told Newsday the story was “one of the most appalling miscarriages of justice” that she had read about for a long time.

Referring to the boy’s abuse at St Michael’s, she said when the power of supervision of the staff was removed from the Anglican Church and given to the State, discipline went out the window and the situation deteriorated. “It is typical, all over the world, of what happens when social institutions for children and the elderly are taken over by government and by civil servants who are not hired because they care about the work but because it’s a job.”

She also questioned why it took a year for the boy to be diagnosed, and only because of the mother’s urging. She said it was because there was no proper supervision of the boys at St Michael’s and no one there took responsibility to request an evaluation.

Mahabir-Wyatt said St Ann’s was no place for children but lamented that there was no place in TT for mentally ill or emotionally disturbed children, or children who were “beyond control.” She said she hoped someone would make a case for there to be a space for these children at the Couva Children’s Hospital if it was possible.

“I cried, thinking what it is we can do. Yet we’re building stadiums – all that money going into finishing up a stadium and we have so many children who are being abused and we don’t have anywhere to put them so they can be cared for, rehabilitated and helped.”

She said it was further distressing that the boy’s placement at the Child Support Centre was temporary as there were more judicial matters to take place.

With regard to the child hotline report and the authority’s seeming non-action, she said the delay was typical because of bureaucracy. “I am outraged that an immediate investigation did not take place but it happens over and over.”