Last night the headline was about the killing of a small boy - an 8 year old caught in the crossfire of a war between rival neighborhoods.
Regrettably, tonight, it gets no better - our lead story is about a hideous case of sexual abuse against a 4 year old girl - reportedly by her relative.
According to the child's mother - the babysitter was in charge of picking up the 4 year old from a Belize City public school.
But instead she was told that the child's uncle picked her up and took her to her grandmother's house. While he had possession of the child, she was brutally molested.
And it's when the mother saw her child yesterday evening that she noticed something was wrong.
Now, to take every measure to protect the child's identity, we won't say the name of the school, and we won't show her mother's face or give her name.
Indeed, it is a very delicate, very disturbing story, but, sadly, the kind of story that must be told to keep the community on its guard against predators - especially when that predator is a trusted relative.
Here's what the mother had to say when Monica Bodden spoke to her today.
Voice of mother
"She mentions to me that she wanted to live with me and so I ask her why? What happen? And then she started to cry. I ask her again what happen and she said that she wanted to live with me."
Monica Bodden
"Then what did you say to her?"
Voice of mother
"I said to her that she lives with me - what happen? she started to tell me that her private was hurting her."
Monica Bodden
"What you did at that time?"
Voice of mother
"I ended up checking her, took off her tights and then took off her underwear. When I look at her underwear there were spots of blood and plus a little bit of "yellow thing" was on my baby under wear. After that I went to the hospital. I call my sister and my mother-in-law and told them to go to the hospital with me."
Monica Bodden
"So the doctors examine her? and what were you told?"
Voice of mother
"They told me that my baby was raped. Dr. Grinage checks her two different times and says that he doesn't know what all happen because he needs to take a test. My whole inside of my baby is messed up. When I look at it - my whole inside of my baby looks bad. I don't know why the school will let my baby go with somebody who they don't know. They have to take a test and look it up because they say its looks like gonorrhea, but they are not sure."
Monica Bodden
"Up to this point she is discharging some yellow stuff right?"
Voice of mother
"I have to take her back to the hospital. My baby is only 4 years old. How somebody will have it in their heart to do my baby something like that."
Monica Bodden
"At this point she is saying that it was her uncle who did this to her?"
Voice of mother
"She is not really talking out everything. She is just saying piece by piece`. She is saying that they took her out of town, she is not telling us everything - out of town where."
Monica Bodden
"You had a chance to speak with anyone from the school. Anyone contacted you; the principal, the teacher or anybody?"
Voice of mother
"Well I went to talk with a man when I was leaving with the police. I don't know what the man's name was. They took away my baby life. If she have anymore other sickness....I tell it to the police that I don't know what will happen because I won't left my baby like that. Nobody knows what all I went through and how you struggle to raise your own baby and so I won't leave it like that. I am sorry, if I have to fight for my child and go around and speak to whosoever - that is what I will do. I have a lot of people that will support me in it."
Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Monica the entire department is saddened by this report - a report of this nature. I can say on behalf of the Commissioner and Minister that we are doing everything in our power to investigate this sick allegation - the heinous crime. First of all a parent reported that sometime after 8 yesterday someone pick up her child from a school. I cannot reveal too much about the school to protect the identity of this child of course, but we understand from a medical examination that this child was sexually assaulted and we are doing everything in our power. We know who we are looking for and hope to have that person in custody soon. As soon as we have him in custody - I will make sure that you have a photo at least so that we can alert the public of this sexual predator. we are trying our best to rid the streets of people that continues to be predators and prey on our minors - our babies. Society on a whole, our country - we do not accept this kind of behavior and by no means will we left this report in any form or shape unattended. I am sure that we will bring justice to this young child and to her mother and to the rest of our viewing public because we know that the entire country is saddened by a report of this nature."
Monica Bodden
"At this time can you say if this man is a relative to the child?"
Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"No Monica."
Geovanni Brackett, Reporter
"From our understanding, reports unconfirmed is from the gruesome act this child might be terrible damage. Would you care to even tell us the name, what if you don't catch this person? Shouldn't that name be out so that people can readily know who to look for to assist the police."
Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer
"Geovanni you and I know that we cannot do that. This is a sexual offence. Even though it's against a child, I am still not allowed to put that person's identity out there because in the event we have that person in custody we would run the risk of not getting or not securing a conviction in front of the court because that person has to go on an identification parade and I would want to prejudice that case or blowing the chance for us having a conviction because we release his identity to the public. That will happen in due time. I know that the entire public is saddened by this; I know our tempers are properly flared up but I am asking you the Belizean people to just bare patience with us and allow us to investigate this crime properly so that we can make a proper arrest that would lead to a conviction."
The 4 year old's mother met with the school's principal and General Manager late this evening where the school agreed to pay for the child's medical bills. We understand that the school refuses to take blame for the incident since the child's uncle who is accused of the heinous act, was the one to register her at the school. The school's General Manager says the situation is out of their hands and leave it up to the police to do their investigation.
They stressed though that the 4 year old child was released into the hands of an authorized adult. According to the mother, when she asked her child who did that to her, the child kept on saying her uncle's name. Up to news time we understand no one has been detained by police.
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