RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A school teacher has been charged with sev­en counts of cru­el­ty to chil­dren fol­low­ing al­le­ga­tions of abuse, in­clud­ing lock­ing her two young chil­dren in a dog ken­nel as pun­ish­ment.

The charges were laid af­ter nine months of de­tailed in­ves­ti­ga­tions by the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said on March 6, a man went to the St Mar­garet Po­lice Sta­tion with his six-year-old son, who re­port­ed be­ing se­vere­ly beat­en by his moth­er ear­li­er that day at their home in Clax­ton Bay. The child al­so dis­closed ad­di­tion­al in­ci­dents of abuse, in­clud­ing be­ing locked in a dog ken­nel with his five-year-old broth­er in 2023 and an­oth­er in­ci­dent in the base­ment of their home.

The mat­ter was re­ferred to the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit (South). Po­lice Con­sta­ble Bharat of the unit in­ter­viewed the chil­dren, record­ed state­ments, re­viewed CCTV footage, and con­duct­ed vis­its to the re­port­ed scenes of abuse.

Fol­low­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions, the sus­pect, a 40-year-old school teacher, was tak­en in­to cus­tody on De­cem­ber 11. She de­nied the al­le­ga­tions dur­ing the in­ter­view. Af­ter re­view­ing the case file, le­gal of­fi­cers in­struct­ed that the sus­pect be for­mal­ly charged with sev­en counts of cru­el­ty to chil­dren.

Any­one hav­ing in­for­ma­tion on cru­el­ty to chil­dren can call the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty Hot­line: 996 or 800-2014. Re­ports can al­so be emailed to Reg­istry@ttchil­dren.org or mailed to 35A Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.