Faulty interrogation causes many child sex abuse cases to not reach courts - CPA Director

Faulty interrogation causes many child sex abuse cases to not reach courts – CPA Director

Jul 29, 2019 News

There exists faulty interrogation practices in the handling of child sex abuses cases, according to Director of the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA), Ann Greene.

Director of the Childcare and Protection Agency, Ann Greene

She discussed this issue on July 25, 2019 at the Pegasus Hotel, during Turkeyen and Tain Talks 19, of which the focus was Interrogating Sexual Violence in Guyana.
“It should be noted that child sexual abuse is a hidden crime and many victims literally do not have a voice and ability to tell and identify their abuser. So the reports we have may just be the tip of the iceberg. This is not unique to Guyana.”
Greene said it is believed that about 90 percent of cases of sexual violence against children are not reported to authorities. She continued that, of the cases reported, many have not made it to and through the judiciary system. At present, there are efforts by the CPA to assess just how many, using a new electronic data collecting system.
Even though 90 percent of cases go unreported, CPA got a staggering 980 reported cases of child sexual abuse in 2018. 801 of the victims were girls, while 179 were boys.

She noted that all sexual abuse cases reported to CPA are reported to the police, as required by law.
But after that, a series of unfortunate events tend to follow, which may not be child friendly, she said.
“From reports, the main contributory factor to cases not making its way to and through the judicial system is faulty interrogation processes starting with the child not being believed.”
The CPA director explained that children would likely face multiple, likely abrasive interrogation processes.
“The child would tell, perhaps, the teacher. The teacher would listen to the whole story to the end. Then the teacher would bring the child to the childcare agency. They will go and hear it till to the end. Then they take the child to the police. The police hear it one day, call the child the next day. Come, next week. Start the healing process, then the child has to come back to tell the story again.”
To remedy this, there have been established child advocacy centres since 2014, as Greene noted she “is totally dissatisfied with the interrogation sessions of children.”
The centers were established with the sole purpose of having a multidisciplinary team of law enforcement, non-government organisations (NGO) and key government stakeholders, work cohesively for a more child-friendly interrogation process, in-keeping with child rights, the need to provide healing support to victims, and to bring perpetrators to justice.
The team would make decisions about investigation treatment, management and prosecution of child abuse cases.
She said that the idea behind the centers is to have child victims provide evidence and report of their abuse only once to a multidisciplinary team, with the expertise to treat carefully with the child and perform psychological and forensic assessments on the spot. After that, therapeutic services would be provided for the child.
“The evidence provided by the child is properly recorded, which ensures the opportunity to use the information obtained in court. The child advocacy centers have proven that it’s possible to establish friendly practices of interrogation of children, and we should feel proud for this venture, which is a step-up in the protection of children who have suffered sexual violence.”
She said that while the centres have provided some improvements, there is still a lot left to iron out.
For one, there is a struggle of power and authority, she added; and on top of that, an apparent lack of integration and cohesion among team members
“Some, at times, would lost their connection with each other, and appear to be working independently and not effectively collaborating to achieve common goals.”
Green posited that the child victim tends to be the only eyewitness in their abuse, besides the perpetrator. Hence, the child report is extremely important to the evidence-gathering process.
“Great care must be taken in getting the child’s report so that the best quality of evidence could be had for the trial to bring more perpetrators to justice, and to protect the child at the same time. There must be social change to prevent the re-victimisation and non-prosecution through lack of child friendly and faulty interrogation practices. Child sexual assault can last a lifetime and spans generations. This sexual assault of our children must stop at all costs.”