The Tribune

A TOP police officer highlighted the connection between runaways and unlawful sexual intercourse activities, saying most young people reported missing are engaging in sexual acts.

“As relates to incidents occurring as relates to sexual offences, we have seen a direct correlation between unlawful sexual intercourse and runaways,” said Assistant Superintendent Altida Bowles, who works in the sexual offences department of the police force.

“You will find that you have young ladies or young males leaving home, and you will see they have been reported as missing. For the majority of the times, they are runaways engaging in sexual intercourse. During our summer months, you will see there are increases and has been for history increase during the summer months a rise in unlawful sexual intercourse. We have children off from school, and there’s no proper supervision, and without supervision, they say when the cat’s away, the rats will play.”

ASP Bowles was among several police officers who discussed sex-related offences during an Office of the Prime Minister briefing yesterday.

“We need to understand who our kids are involved with,” she said. “One thing I see that most parents do not do is pay attention to their children’s social media interactions.

“You’ll find that in the summer, the children are being babysat by the internet and by their phones. In our investigations, we get a lot of our evidence from phones, off those laptops. So as a parent, it’s not that you’re trying to be intrusive, you really need to monitor those social media. You need, at times to check the phones, check the tablet, see what’s going on.

“Look at your environment, it’s important to understand you cannot bring everyone into your child’s life. If you’re a single parent, and you’re interested in someone, you have to do some investigation on that person, not automatically bring the child into the home. And we’ve had a number of cases where the predator was invited in the home because this is mommy’s boyfriend, or this is dad’s girlfriend, and they have taken advantage of the child. So proper vetting of that individual you are bringing into the home is very important.”

The sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl on Saturday has once again put this crime in the spotlight.

The young girl was reportedly playing with friends outside her home when a man in a white Nissan Skyline told her to get in his vehicle. The man allegedly took her to an unknown location and assaulted her.

Police have since arrested a 42-year-old man from Summerset Estate in connection with the incident.

Police Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings noted that parents could be imprisoned for being careless with their children.

“We have in the past reported incidents where parents were placed before the courts,” she said. “I think we need to highlight it more when we do put the parents before the courts, parents who fail to provide the adequate environment and the safety for their children. We have taken a zero-tolerance approach.”

“From this day forward, you need to ensure that your children are properly monitored and properly secured with responsible adults, as failure to do so will result in them being placed before the courts,” CSP Skippings said.