ON January 11, 2015 this publication reported that concerned relatives of a 14-year-old schoolgirl had alleged that a 40-year-old mom was using her teenage daughter as bait to extract monies from a lover.

This information, which was disclosed to a reporter of this newspaper by a close male associate of the family, who visited Chronicle’s Editorial Department in the company of two female neighbours of the woman, was disputed by the mother who subsequently visited this newspaper and told a different story.

Whatever the facts are, and whoever is telling the truth there should be investigations by the Child Welfare authorities into these allegations because a child’s welfare is at stake here. The Neesa Gopaul saga is a prime example of what happens to child victims if reports by neighbours and/or concerned persons about child abuse are left unheeded.

Mothers and other relatives using children to bait paedophiles for gain is a worldwide phenomenon; as was the recent allegations made by one Johnny Welshman against a prominent politician, whose stepfather was the accused culprit in this instance.

When the children grow up, find the courage and complain to the authorities they are most often treated with scorn and disdain; or if the perpetrator is influential enough, they never even get their day in court, much less receive justice and closure in any way from the skewed justice systems of the world.

The vociferous do-gooders, who stage mass protests when a political opponent is accused of a criminal act, are often silenced because many of these perpetrators are their friends and colleagues.

A post on a social media site, extrapolated from a US newspaper, again stressed that this is a worldwide problem. As was stated in the publication, “A mother was arrested on charges of sex abuse after selling her young daughter to her boyfriend for sex in exchange for a few hundred dollars,” police in Washington said.

Bellevue Police said that they arrested 46-year-old Mary Miles of Carnation, after being accused of selling her 14-year-old daughter to 36-year-old Bryan T. Murphy, who works as a truck driver.

The boyfriend of Miami, Oklahoma, was arrested on Friday night. He was booked into jail, and he will be extradited to Washington.

According to the police investigation, Miles made arrangements for her boyfriend to have sex with her 14-year-old girl in exchange with helping her pay rent.

Miles took the girl to her boyfriend, where the mother and her boyfriend had sex in front of the girl. During sex, the boyfriend grabbed the leg of the girl, but she managed to flee from the scene.

The frightened girl ran to her school, where her 17-year-old sister was waiting for her. They both called police.

Miles admitted that she agreed to allow her boyfriend to have sex with her 14-year-old daughter or with her other minor daughter.

Miles admitted that Murphy wanted to have sex with her daughters and especially the 14-year-old girl because she was still a virgin.

Police said the agreed price was US$400. The girl and her sister have been removed from the family home and placed in protective custody.”

There are many such instances of child abuse of minors – reported and unreported in Guyana.
While society is concerned about delinquent children, it should first determine if there are delinquent parents who are the real culprits behind aberrant behaviourial patterns of their children – in whatever way, shape or form this pattern unfolds itself.

Oftentimes the children fall through the cracks, despite the many initiatives of Government and NGOs; and they most likely surface as adults with deep-rooted problems and no moral compass: In other words, they do not know right from wrong.

All they know is that survival comes at a cost; and most desirable is that the cost is to others from whom they profit, many times leading to tragedy for innocents who are merely going about their daily lives, unaware that they are being targeted by predators.

These neglected/abandoned/abused children themselves become delinquent parents in a vicious cycle that seem to have no end, and until a holistic solution is found to address this recurrent problem that is infusing our national way of life, the high standards that Guyanese were once famous for would soon be lost in the dynamics.