THE sister of a 14-year-old girl, has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA) and its Director Ann Greene for negligence and breach of the laws governing child rights.

Attorney-at-law Eusi Anderson filed a statement of claim on the woman’s behalf at the Demerara High Court on Monday. The Attorney General of Guyana is also listed as a respondent.

The AG  was named nominally because the CPA is not a statutory body corporate in the statute creating it. As a consequence, liability falls under the AG, as representative of the state.

The family is seeking a declaration from the court that the CPA and its director between December 3-4,2020, breached the statutory duty of care to the child, imposed on them by, inter alia, the Childcare and Protection Agency Act 2009 and the Juvenile Offenders Act, Chapter 10:03.

Also, being sought is a second declaration that the CPA and its director, breached the duty of care to the teen imposed on them by virtue of Guyana’s accession to and ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Resolution No. 44/25 of 20 No. 1989).

As such, the family is seeking damages in excess of $25M against the CPA and Greene for negligence, in so far as they breached the duty of care owed to the teen, which is imposed on them in Guyana’s laws.

The court is also being asked to award exemplary and punitive damages for negligence since the CPA failed to remove the teen from police custody and place her in their care after visiting her at the East La Penitence Police Station where she was detained as part of a narcotics investigation.

According to the court documents seen by this publication, the teen, who was 14 years, 11 months old at the time, was held against her will and kept under arrest at the East La Penitence Police station following her arrest on December 3, 2020.

On December 7, 2020, the minor’s family filed habeas corpus proceedings in the High Court and during the hearing of the application, Chief Justice Roxane George ordered that the teen be released into the custody of the CPA.

During the hearing, the court documents said, the CPA indicated to the Chief Justice that they were aware of the teen’s detention since December 3,2020 and claimed that efforts were being made to persuade the Police Commander for the Georgetown District to release her into their custody.

While in custody at the police station, the teen was in a lockup with adult female prisoners contrary to provisions of law and duties imposed on the CPA.

“ During that time of 3 – 7 December, 2020, she was subjected to sleeping in an upright position on a wooden chair, sleeping on a mattress and cardboard on cold concrete, sexual predatory advances by other prisoners, being foot cuffed to a wooden chair by her ankles for hours and infinite pain and trauma,” the court documents said.

According to the teen’s family, the CPA agents, during their visit to the police station, were aware of all the transgressions, except the sexual advances from the other prisoners but did not remove her.

The family is arguing that the CPA neglected its duties when they did not object to the arrest and continued detention of the teen.

Also, the CPA failed to take the teen from the custody of the police station to suitable, minor-friendly and appropriate detention facilities during the course of the police investigation including but not limited to the Sophia Holding Facility.

It is also being claimed that the CPA failed to investigate reports by the teen of sexual harassment, physical abuse and child neglect after she complained of same on December 4, 2020 to their agents.