The man­ag­er of the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Home and Cri­sis Nurs­ery Ker­ri-Ann Leon Sing, as well as sev­er­al care­givers, who asked not to be named, have come for­ward say­ing that sev­er­al chil­dren have been sex­u­al­ly and phys­i­cal­ly abused by an old­er res­i­dent over a six-year pe­ri­od.

The whistle­blow­ers al­so claimed that at­tempts to have the child trans­ferred were ini­tial­ly blocked by su­pe­ri­ors. But the mat­ter has now been en­gag­ing the at­ten­tion of the po­lice, with the TTPS’ Chil­dren’s Pro­tec­tion Unit re­mov­ing the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor from the home. Ac­cord­ing to the whistle­blow­ers, chil­dren at the home had been ter­ri­fied, fear­ing that the boy would at­tack or mo­lest them. 

Be­tween 2018 and 2024, there were 25 in­ci­dents of sex­u­al­ly in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour by the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor against 11 chil­dren and even two dogs. 

There were al­so 113 re­port­ed in­ci­dents of mis­be­hav­iour against the child. 

The sex­u­al in­ci­dents in­clud­ed pok­ing chil­dren’s pri­vate ar­eas with ob­jects, in­ap­pro­pri­ate touch­ing, sneak­ing in­to the bath­room while an­oth­er child is bathing, co­erc­ing a child in­to his bed, en­ter­ing an­oth­er child’s bed, rub­bing his gen­i­tals on an­oth­er child and fondling the pri­vate ar­eas of the home’s pets. 

“They are scared. They are wor­ried. I’ve talked to kids and they’ve told me that he’s a prob­lem; that he’s mak­ing, some­times, ad­vances to­wards them…They feel as though they are in dan­ger and are try­ing to stay away…I asked them, am I blow­ing this out of pro­por­tion? Should I be wor­ried? They say, yes, aun­ty.

“To me, I didn’t have a choice. If you knew some­thing aw­ful is go­ing on and you tried to go through the right chan­nels, you have the choice of ei­ther go­ing along with the sta­tus quo, leav­ing and say­ing it is some­body else’s prob­lem, or do­ing some­thing about it and two of those things I couldn’t live with,” Leon Sing told Guardian Me­dia’s In­ves­tiga­tive Desk on Thurs­day.

The Home cares for chil­dren who were vic­tims of abuse, ne­glect and do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. It is re­gard­ed as a safe haven.

In mid-Feb­ru­ary, an ini­tial re­port was made to the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty, fol­lowed by an­oth­er re­port, af­ter two boys, ages five and six years old, ac­cused the 12-year-old of mo­lesta­tion. Both boys were in­tro­duced to the boy’s dorm in No­vem­ber 2023, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly been oc­cu­pants of the nurs­ery.

The five-year-old re­port­ed be­ing touched on Feb­ru­ary 16. Sub­se­quent­ly, a let­ter writ­ten to the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty by the home’s man­ag­er said that a psy­chol­o­gist at the au­thor­i­ty dis­closed that while she was work­ing with a child on iden­ti­fy­ing emo­tions, the child said that “bad touch” made him un­hap­py.

“When asked to clar­i­fy what is a bad touch, he said when the child in ques­tion touch­es his pe­nis. When asked, where did this in­ci­dent take place? He told her when he had his show­er and was in the boys’ dorm, the boy in ques­tion touched his pe­nis. When the boy told the boy in ques­tion to stop, he did not,” Leon Sing wrote.

The six-year-old made an al­le­ga­tion on Feb­ru­ary 21. An in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty be­gan af­ter the first in­ci­dent was re­port­ed.

A week af­ter their in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­gan, Leon Sing was told by two care­givers that the two boys, who were men­tioned in the re­port, said they were mo­lest­ed by the old­er res­i­dent. Leon Sing com­piled an­oth­er re­port on Feb­ru­ary 21 based on the boys’ claims. The con­ver­sa­tion be­tween the care­givers and the two boys was record­ed.

Be­low is a par­tial tran­script of the con­ver­sa­tion two staff mem­bers had with two boys at the Home

Staff Mem­ber 1: Go­ing up on the boys’ bed and telling him “Come and see the girl child. Come and see the girl child.” And he is watch­ing the girl when she’s sleep­ing in the night. He goes up on the boy’s bed and wakes him up and tells him to take off his pants.

Staff Mem­ber 2: Take off your pants to do what? What he tell you to take off your pants to do?

Staff Mem­ber 1: He lie down on top of you?

Boy 1: Yes, aun­ty

Staff Mem­ber 1: And what he…he squeeze yah? And what did he do?

Boy 1: And he say don’t tell aun­ty

Staff Mem­ber 1: He tell him don’t tell me

Staff Mem­ber 2: What he was do­ing when he was ly­ing on top of you? When he on top of you? When he on top of you ly­ing down, how is he ly­ing down? On your front or on your back?

Boy 1: On meh back

Staff Mem­ber 2: And what else?

Boy 2: And check­ing girl child and sit­ting down in my bed right down

Boy 2: Right there and he say­ing watch girl child

Staff Mem­ber 2: He touch alyuh pe­nis? Who pe­nis he touch?

Boy 2: *Names oth­er child* and mine

Staff Mem­ber 1: And when he takes off yah py­ja­mas, what he do yah?

Boy 1: He does touch me

Staff Mem­ber 1: Uh?

Staff Mem­ber 1: So when he touch­es your pe­nis he does come on top of you and wine on you?

Boy 1: On my pe­nis

Af­ter learn­ing of the in­ci­dents, Leon Sing be­gan sleep­ing at the Home to try and pro­tect the oth­er chil­dren. Ac­cord­ing to Leon Sing, the board of the Home was aware of the first al­le­ga­tion but wasn’t ini­tial­ly aware of the sec­ond one. She said her su­pe­ri­ors were aware of both al­le­ga­tions. 

Recog­nis­ing that it is un­like­ly that a first-time of­fend­er would have si­mul­ta­ne­ous vic­tims, Leon Sing start­ed dig­ging and in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

That’s when she dis­cov­ered in logs hid­den in an of­fice that be­tween 2018 and 2023 there were 25 ac­cu­sa­tions of sex­u­al mis­con­duct against the 12-year-old. Leon Sing said she had lit­tle faith that the home’s board would trust her po­si­tion over that of her su­pe­ri­ors. 

“I think the break­down hap­pened when there was a dis­tinct dis­agree­ment about the boy who was al­leged to have per­pe­trat­ed these in­ci­dents and what was to be done with the boy by the chair­per­son. I rec­om­mend­ed that the boy be re­moved, and re­lo­cat­ed to a home that bet­ter suits his needs, and the chair­per­son was adamant that would not hap­pen. There was a fun­da­men­tal dis­agree­ment,” she claimed.

“I start­ed work­ing be­hind her back with my care­givers and start­ed talk­ing to Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty. I let them know what was hap­pen­ing. I ba­si­cal­ly be­came a whistle­blow­er,” she con­fessed.

Unim­pressed by the re­ac­tion of her su­pe­ri­ors, the man­ag­er, sup­port­ed by care­givers, re­quest­ed Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty to have the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor trans­ferred to an­oth­er home.

“Giv­en all the in­for­ma­tion pre­sent­ed to me, I, Ker­ri Ann Leon Sing in my ca­pac­i­ty as home ad­min­is­tra­tor/man­ag­er, do here­by for­mal­ly re­quest that 12-year-old *names child* be re­moved from the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Home and Cri­sis Nurs­ery, lo­cat­ed at CQ15 Cam­den Cou­va ef­fec­tive im­me­di­ate­ly as he presents a clear and present dan­ger to the chil­dren of the home, par­tic­u­lar­ly the younger chil­dren.

“For the safe­ty of all the chil­dren and in the best in­ter­ests of all the chil­dren and the best in­ter­est of the child in ques­tion, he should be re­moved from Cou­va Chil­dren’s Home and placed in al­ter­na­tive care where his needs can be ad­dressed in a safer en­vi­ron­ment,” Leon Sing wrote in a let­ter to the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty.

As they await­ed a de­ci­sion, she said they re­moved the boy from the dorm, plac­ing him in a room that care­givers used to oc­cu­py. They didn’t par­tic­u­lar­ly like the choice of room, she said, but it was the less­er of the evils avail­able.

“I want what every­body wants for their kids, I want them to have a hap­py life; a safe life. I want them to en­joy every­thing else that oth­er kids are en­joy­ing—en­joy­ing their birth­days and go­ing out. That’s all I want for them—a nor­mal life that they en­joy.

“Even the kid who is the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor or was the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor, I was try­ing to work with Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty. I had iden­ti­fied a home and I said my home is the num­ber one home—I would say that. I would boast and say that—CCH is the num­ber one home in Trinidad, But if I had to send one of my kids, who needs help, I chose a sec­ond home that I know has the re­sources to help him. It’s not that I want­ed to throw him away and get rid of him. I want­ed him to have help. And if at all pos­si­ble and he gets the help that he needs so that he can come back. I’m sor­ry it got to this,” she said, break­ing down cry­ing.

In 2022, the Ju­dith Jones Task Force un­cov­ered hor­rif­ic tales of abuse at chil­dren’s homes around the coun­try.

The 307-page re­port, which was re­leased by Min­is­ter of State in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs, Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy ex­plic­it­ly de­tailed the sex­u­al, phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal abuse many wards face at in­sti­tu­tions across the coun­try.

Mat­ter un­der probe

Last week, the Chil­dren’s Pro­tec­tion Unit re­moved the al­leged per­pe­tra­tor from the home. Two vic­tims were al­so re­moved.

Leon Sing said she’s heart­bro­ken be­cause she does not know where any of them went.

She be­lieved it was un­fair to re­move the two boys who made the ac­cu­sa­tions be­cause it was as though they were be­ing pun­ished for speak­ing out.

Chair­man of the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Home Bev­er­ly John con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia’s In­ves­tiga­tive Desk that there was an in­ci­dent at the home.

She said she could not say any­thing fur­ther as it in­volves chil­dren.

In a me­dia re­lease dat­ed May 17, the Board of the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Home and Cri­sis Nurs­ery con­firmed that on May 14, the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit of the TTPS re­moved three res­i­dents of the Home.

The Board said that giv­en the fact that the sit­u­a­tion in­volves mi­nors who are wards of the state, it can­not dis­close con­fi­den­tial in­for­ma­tion that may prej­u­dice the out­come of any in­ves­ti­ga­tions, and that can neg­a­tive­ly af­fect the mi­nors con­nect­ed to the mat­ter.

“In Feb­ru­ary 2024, the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT) raised a mat­ter with The Home which in­volved more than one res­i­dent.

“This rev­e­la­tion prompt­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and im­me­di­ate mea­sures were im­ple­ment­ed by The Home’s man­age­ment in con­sul­ta­tion with the au­thor­i­ty. 

“On May 13, 2024, the board re­ceived its first com­mu­nique from the man­ag­er out­lin­ing the mat­ter which had been re­ceiv­ing the at­ten­tion of CATT. On May 14, 2024 the board was in­formed bythe chair­man that the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit re­moved three of the res­i­dents con­nect­ed to the mat­ter.

“This ac­tion fol­lowed a re­port made to the po­lice by the man­ag­er, who is re­spon­si­ble for the day-to-day op­er­a­tions of The Home and who re­ports to the board,” said the board in its re­sponse to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed.

It added emer­gency meet­ings were held on May 15 and May 16 to dis­cuss the mat­ter and to en­sure first and fore­most the im­me­di­ate safe­ty of all mi­nors at the home.

 “The board has stat­ed that due process must be fol­lowed as there are in­ter­nal pro­to­cols for han­dling all mat­ters at the Home and clear guide­lines un­der the li­cense to op­er­ate a Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dence. 

The board added it is “very con­cerned about the re­cent de­vel­op­ments giv­en its con­cert­ed ef­forts over the years to es­tab­lish a mod­el chil­dren’s home, with an em­pha­sis on safe­ty, trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty.”

Re­ports of sex­u­al­ly in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour

16 Feb­ru­ary 2018—Hit child on her butt

13 Sept 2018—Pulled out his pe­nis and showed class

6 Oct 2018—Found kneel­ing over sleep­ing girl child whose pants and un­der­wear were pulled down

23 Oct 2018—In­jured while play­ing pull pe­nis game with oth­ers

22 Nov 2018—Caught mas­tur­bat­ing in the wash­room with the door open

14 May 2019—Caught lift­ing girl child’s blan­ket while she was sleep­ing

2 Ju­ly 2019—Caught naked and gy­rat­ing in his bed

12 Dec 2019—Caught pok­ing three girls in their stom­ach and pri­vate ar­eas

16 Jan 2020—Shook butt at care­givers when be­ing spo­ken to about be­hav­iour

11 May 2020—Told child to suck *gen­i­tals*

7 June 2020—Snuck in­to the down­stairs bath­room while a girl child was bathing

9 June 2020—Asked girl child to get in­to his bed

28 Feb 2021—Touch­ing girls’ butts in the fam­i­ly room

14 March 2021—In­ap­pro­pri­ate touch­ing of three girl chil­dren

11 April 2021—Spoke about the pri­vate parts of girl chil­dren

2 Oct 2021—Snuck in­to the bath­room down­stairs while a girl was bathing

8 Feb 2023—Rubbed pri­vates in girl’s face

9 Feb 2024—Boy child said in ther­a­py that the boy in ques­tion touched his pe­nis

16 Feb 2024—A child in ther­a­py said the boy in ques­tion touch­es his pe­nis, goes in­to his and an­oth­er boy child’s bed at night

16 Feb 2024—Five or six in­ci­dents were re­port­ed of chil­dren see­ing the boy in ques­tion hold­ing the penis­es of two dogs

16 Feb 2024—Moan­ing sug­ges­tive­ly at the win­dow of a three-year-old

21 Feb 2024—Two boy chil­dren said he touch­es their pe­nis, pinch­es and chokes them, rubs pe­nis on one of their butts

23 Feb 2024—Child said boy fon­dles and pokes his pe­nis

28 Feb 2024—Caught hump­ing one of the nurs­ery toys

1 March 2024—Caught mas­tur­bat­ing in the liv­ing room