The Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's Women's League yes­ter­day ex­pressed its out­rage over the killing of two-year-old Aaliyah John­son. Po­lice have said the girl was al­so phys­i­cal­ly and sex­u­al­ly abused. Vice-chair­man of the PNM's Women's League Mar­va Bel­lamy-Bostic, in a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, said: "We are ap­palled that preda­tors are prey­ing up­on the most in­no­cent among us, steal­ing their in­no­cence and in many in­stances tak­ing away their very lives."

She said the peo­ple of T&T "must en­sure that the State put poli­cies and sys­tems in place to iden­ti­fy and as­sist vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in its var­i­ous forms." She said cit­i­zens must take own­er­ship of neigh­bour­hoods at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el. Bel­lamy-Bostic said: "We need to recog­nise our roles as lead­ers, par­ents, neigh­bours, friends and in­ter­vene where nec­es­sary."