Mothers not happy with judicial system

Two mothers are demanding answers after the men accused of assaulting their young children on school premises walked free – one after being found not guilty and the other after the charge was dismissed.

In separate interviews with the Sunday Sun, the women, whose identities are being withheld to protect their minor children, spoke of shock, anger and deep frustration, particularly as both said they were never informed that their matters had been called or concluded in court.

Both have vowed to pursue appeals.

In the first case, a man was found not guilty in the District “A” Magistrate Court of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on a nineyear-old boy. The incident dates back to May 29, 2019, with the not-guilty verdict delivered on December 5 last year.

The boy’s mother said she received a call the evening of the incident informing her that her son had been assaulted in the car park of his school. According to her account, her son was playing with two girls when a man approached him.

The man allegedly told the child to stop running with the girls before lifting him into the air, shaking him, throwing him to the ground and kicking his foot.

The child was taken to the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic where his foot was bandaged. He was later referred to an orthopaedic specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The matter dragged on for seven years. During that period, the mother said she was advised by a court official to meet with the accused’s attorney to discuss a possible settlement. However, discussions collapsed when the accused insisted he would not pay any money.

She and her son eventually testified in court. However, earlier last week she learned, to her disbelief, that the case had concluded last December and the accused was acquitted.

Her anger deepened when she discovered that the school official who was first contacted after the incident had never been summoned to testify.

That official confirmed to the Sunday Sun that he attended court four times over the years, the last being in August 2024.

“I was informed last August that the court would summon me when they were ready for me to testify and they would wait until I got there,” he said.

“I never received the call.” King’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, who represented the accused, confirmed the verdict and defended the outcome.

“He stood between her son and some girls he was chasing and the boy ran into him and fell. He never lifted him up and threw him down,” Pilgrim said.

In a separate case before the Holetown Magistrates’ Court, a 58-year-old man charged with indecently assaulting a four-year-old girl walked free on January 15 after the charge was dismissed.

The accused, a general worker at the child’s school, had been arrested after the girl reported that he took her into a bathroom cubicle and sexually assaulted her.

The child’s mother said she attended court about five times and was repeatedly told by police prosecutors that there was no file. On her last visit she was advised not to return unless summoned.

After hiring an attorney in May 2025 to write the Commissioner of Police about the “missing file”, she said she received no response. It was only after seeking a second legal opinion that she learned the case had already been dismissed.

“I broke down and cried,” she said.

She maintained that her daughter identified the accused by name and that two doctors documented trauma to and bleeding from the child’s private parts.

Pilgrim, who also represented that accused in the matter, said he successfully made a no-case submission under Section 31:2 of the Sexual Offences Act.

“If there is no corroboration in the evidence of a child, then the case cannot go forward,” Pilgrim said.

Section 31 states: “An accused shall not be liable to be convicted on the sworn evidence of a child unless that evidence is corroborated by other material evidence implicating the accused.”

The mother questioned the interpretation.

“What more corroboration do they need?” she asked, adding, “I am not going to rest until I get justice for my child,” she vowed.

Child rights advocate Faith Marshall-Harris described the outcomes as deeply troubling.

“I am devastated by these outcomes. Our children are not safe. We at the Child Helpline receive reports of child abuse at the rate of almost one a day and the tragedy is that these children rarely receive justice.

“They are not being heard; no one appears to be listening. An alarming amount is occurring on school premises and not always perpetrated by children on children as we are often led to believe.

“Because children are often the only witnesses, these cases come to nought, as a person in authority once said, ‘All children tell lies’.”

She added: “We have a brand new Child Protection Act which seems to have done little to abate the abuse of children: Even when there is medical evidence in relation to sexual abuse, the cases are thrown out because no adult witnessed the abuse as if it is likely to be perpetrated in the presence of adults. This is despite the legislation making reference to corroboration by ‘other material evidence’.”

Marshall-Harris warned that without reform, children and caregivers might stop coming forward.

“Only when we have a societal shift in our attitude to children and their concerns will we truly be able to keep children safe. Fewer and fewer children and their carers are prepared to come forward because of the lack of support and the fear of victimisation.

“This is a new and alarming trend. We must take steps to strengthen the law to prevent a normalisation of abuse of children, including ensuring that DNA evidence is routinely gathered to secure convictions.” (MB)

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