The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

THE mother of the eight-year-old girl who was abducted from her Culmersville home last week says her daughter, although still traumatised, is ready to return to school.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, the 39-year-old mother also talked about the five other children who have been abducted in recent weeks.

“I just want to know what’s going in The Bahamas now, why our children can’t be safe?” she pleaded.

The mother added she has not been able to return to work yet and is now also looking for a new home for her family.

She also confirmed police reports that her daughter was not sexually assaulted, adding her abductor “only touched her bottom”.

“(My daughter) was kidnapped but she wasn’t assaulted,” she told The Tribune. “This what the medical team said.

“She say the man touch her bottom and that’s it. When the doctors check her… all of us was right there. I happy I hear that so much, because she’s too young.”

Although she described her daughter as being “just fine” overall, she did note her child is still suffering from the trauma of the event.

“If a man come close to her she thinks that’s the man there,” she said.

However, she added her daughter “really wants to go back to school”.

The eight-year-old girl was taken from her home in Culmersville sometime after 1am on March 3 and later found in the area of Woodlawn Gardens, Soldier Road sometime after 3am. During that time, the man allegedly took the young girl to a home where he touched her and threatened to kill her, her mother told this newspaper at the time.

On March 3, the girl’s mother lamented the state of their home, acknowledging it was unsafe and that their landlord refused to take action. She has seven children, and four of them are minors.

“I lived here for six years, (landlord) never fixed the house. The door ain’t good,” she said. “In one kick anybody inside. This hurt me a lot because I’m the mother and the father. Her daddy don’t even know because since I don’t want to be with him anymore, the (four) children are dead to him.”

Since then, the search for a new home has been tough.

“I find one place but it’s very expensive,” she told The Tribune. “I (haven’t) gone back to work yet,” she said, noting she is self-employed. “When people come to me, I can’t…I just tell them I’m not feeling good, tell them come tomorrow.”

She added social services has been involved in the matter. “Yea they get involved. It’s nothing much they do. They just want me get the kids out of the place… After that, I never heard from them no more.”

This girl’s abduction was the second in a string of recent abductions that have taken place in the capital in recent weeks.

Regarding these incidents, the girl’s mother said: “I just want to know what’s going in The Bahamas now, why our children can’t be safe? Why they can’t go to school and come home safe? Why people eyes on them? What kind of people - where they come from? My (sympathies) to them and I’m very sorry. I’m so sorry about their children. Because I don’t know what I would do if my child didn’t come home.”

On February 16, three-year-old Shavar Bain was abducted from outside his home and then left frightened and alone outside a Fox Hill washhouse several hours later, sparking a manhunt for two women believed to be the abductors.

On March 6, eight-year-old Tyvon Deveaux was playing in a park two lots over from his home on Emmanuel Drive off Soldier Road when he was abducted by a lone female driver in a silver-coloured Japanese-model vehicle. He was later dropped off by the entrance of the dump on Tonique Williams Darling Highway.

On March 7, three young boys, ages 8-10, were abducted on Kool Acres Road, which is off Fox Hill as they were walking home from school. They were also taken by a lone female driver in a dark-coloured vehicle. The two eight-year-olds were initially dropped off by a Haitian village in the vicinity of Seabreeze and Joe Farrington Road. The ten-year-old was dropped off later by the city dump.