Advocacy group returns to debate amid high-profile child abductions

Reacting to the high-profile abductions of two children in less than a week, children’s advocacy organisation Hear The Children’s Cry has once again demanded that the Government immediately make the contents of the Sex Offender Registry accessible to the Jamaican public.

The advocacy group noted that Davian Bryan, the man believed to have taken Phylisa captive, and who remains at large despite her being found unharmed, is currently before the courts on charges of rape and illegal possession of a firearm.

“Hear The Children’s Cry would like to know, why is such a person out on bail?” the advocacy group asked, while noting speculation that Bryan might also be responsible for the disappearance of 13-year-old Winshae Barrett on Saturday, the same day Phylisa was located in the same parish, St Thomas.

Established in July 2014, the Sex Offender Registry is managed by the Department of Correctional Services, but the names, addresses and other important details it contains about convicted sex offenders are available to only the police, persons engaged in professional counseling of sex offenders, persons managing educational institutions where they are enrolled or seeking to be enrolled, persons managing facilities that treat vulnerable persons, as well as prospective employers and employees of sex offenders.

Parents, families and the general public do not have access to the information on convicted sexual offenders.

Betty Ann Blaine, founder of Hear The Children’s Cry, said the abduction of not one but two children, believed to be by the same man, in one small rural community in the past few days, illustrates the critical need for public access to this Registry, as well as increased alertness by families and communities in the interest of keeping children safe.

Blaine argued that, “since we’re told by the experts that pedophilia is incurable, we are bound with the responsibility to protect the children”.

She added: “It is inconceivable that a predator could abduct two children so swiftly, and apparently so effortlessly, in the same community.

“Hear The Children’s Cry offers our sincere sympathy to the families of nine-year-old Phylisa Prussia, now recovered, and of 13-year-old Winshae Barrett, who is still missing. This has got to be a parent’s worst nightmare. We pray for the safe recovery of Winshae, and for the healing from trauma, and the wellbeing of both girls.”

Blaine urged all parents, family and community members to recognise the need to be even more vigilant about protecting the nation’s children.

“We can never take their safety for granted – not even for a moment. We have to recognise that times have changed, and that children are more vulnerable than ever before,” Blaine said.

“This means that children have to be more closely supervised by parents and family members, and that community members must be ‘the eyes and ears’ in order to ensure children’s safety. It means warning the children to be wary of strangers; it means warning older children and care givers about the need to be extra careful of the children they are supervising.

“On the positive side, Jamaicans can be truly proud of the Herculean efforts made by so many caring citizens, to find these two children. We say, very well done, to the over 500-strong, police-led, multi-agency groups and community members involved in these intensive searches for Phylisa and Winshae. This continues to be a real blessing.

Blaine also applauded the use of the CCTV cameras in Bath, St Thomas, and urged the speedy deployment of this vital technology across all communities islandwide.