JOSHUA SEEMU­N­GAL

UNC ac­tivist, and for­mer gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date for La Brea, Vic­tor Roberts, de­liv­ered a copy of the Ju­dith Jones Re­port in­to chil­dren’s homes to the Unit­ed States Em­bassy and the Unit­ed Na­tions of­fice in Port-of-Spain, on Mon­day morn­ing.

Hold­ing a na­tion­al flag and ac­com­pa­nied by Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor David Nakhid and a small group of par­ents and chil­dren, Roberts walked around the sa­van­nah to the of­fices.

“We are quite cu­ri­ous as to why the gov­ern­ment would not deal with the Ju­dith Jones Re­port, where they could ar­rest, lock up and charge peo­ple, and we have de­cid­ed to go back to the Sab­ga Re­port to re­mind the pop­u­la­tion that we have high-rank­ing of­fi­cials of the Ju­di­cia­ry and Law As­so­ci­a­tion, from the gov­ern­ment, abus­ing our chil­dren in the homes,” Roberts said.

“I’m say­ing you all are very much an­gry and you may take law in­to your own hand when you see what they’ve done to our chil­dren. The re­port is open and raw,” he added.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Nakhid al­so lam­bast­ed the gov­ern­ment, claim­ing it did not have the best in­ter­ests of the na­tion at heart.

He al­so aimed sim­i­lar crit­i­cism to­ward the re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions of the coun­try.

“The pas­tors, the pun­dits, the Imams. None of them have done any­thing to ad­vance the case of chil­dren in this coun­try,” Nakhid said to ap­plause.

“The sig­nif­i­cance of this mo­ment should not be passed over. We can achieve no jus­tice for chil­dren here un­der this present gov­ern­ment.”

The Ju­dith Jones Re­port was laid in par­lia­ment in April 2022.

The Re­port found in­stances of sex­u­al and phys­i­cal abuse of chil­dren at chil­dren’s homes and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions re­spon­si­ble for tak­ing care of chil­dren.

A pre­vi­ous re­port in­to al­le­ga­tions of sex­u­al and phys­i­cal abuse at 10 chil­dren’s homes by Robert Sab­ga in 1997 al­so found in­stances of abuse.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice says it is in­ves­ti­gat­ing the find­ings of both re­ports.