I was reading the Observer on line tonight and came across this article.

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Horrific!

A traumatized doctor's gory tale of children being raped, infected with STDs

BY INGRID BROWN Senior staff reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, April 01, 2012

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CHILDREN as young as four years old have been treated for gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes and HIV at the Bustamante Hospital for Children after being raped by close family members including their fathers.

So overwhelming is the number of cases seen at the hospital yearly that one doctor is speaking out in the hope that more will be done by both individuals and communities to protect the nation's children, many of whom endure months and years of abuse before they are eventually rescued.

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Dr Sandra A Knight, a general practitioner who has worked with the paediatric hospital in Kingston for the past 11 years, said more of these young patients are being brought in for sexually transmitted infections.

"The hospital sees several alleged sexual assault cases each year with the victims being anywhere from babies to 12 years old," she told the Jamaica Observer.

Many of these children are usually not taken to the hospital until they start to experience symptoms associated with the vagina, penis or anus.

Dr Knight said she treats an average of eight such cases each year while some of her colleagues see up to 13 children annually at the hospital.

Recalling some of the most disturbing cases she has dealt with during her tenure at the hospital, Dr Knight said they continue to have a long-lasting impact on her, personally.

One which still traumatises her to this day is the case of a nine-year-old boy who was buggered by the pastor his mother left him with while she went to work.

Although the boy became withdrawn and lost his appetite, the buggery was not discovered until his teacher complained that he was defecating on himself while at school.

Dr Knight said when the mother took him to the hospital his penis was swollen and scarred and his anus torn.

"You could literally look up the child's anus to the rectum," Dr Knight said.

The child later revealed that the pastor had been raping him for some time and would give him $20 each time he had sex with him.

Another case she will never forget was that of an 18-month-old boy who died after being buggered by an uncle, two years ago.

"I saw that baby two days before he died," a distraught Dr Knight said.

She recalled the day the near lifeless baby was brought to the hospital by his uncle and a pregnant girlfriend to be treated for a cold.

As she attempted to resuscitate the unconscious baby, she noticed his stomach was growing at an alarming pace.

"I was so busy resuscitating him that I didn't immediately think of turning the child over and when I turned him over the anus was destroyed," she said. "The uncle had raped the baby and when the penis went into the anus it tore off the colon (bowel) and the faeces started to run into the abdominal cavity," she explained, adding that the baby had no chance of living.

In yet another case, Dr Knight said she treated a little girl who was infected with HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis and herpes by an uncle who was in and out of prison.

It was, however, the last two patients that Dr Knight treated a week ago that pushed her to make public the plight of these children.

In these cases, a four and a six-year-old were infected with gonorrhoea which had began to seriously ravish their young bodies by the time they were diagnosed.

"What traumatised me about the situation is when I look at the vagina of these little girls (and pardon the graphicness of what I am saying) the hymen is ripped apart, they have sores, the older child we had to evaporate the room when we were finished because pus was coming from her vagina," she said.

From the symptoms, Dr Knight said it would appear the girls would have been infected for weeks, however the younger one was only taken to the hospital after her mother noticed she was scratching her vagina while the older child had a smelly discharge.

In both cases, Dr Knight said the children refused to say who the perpetrators were, although the younger one reported that her father was sleeping in her bed, while the mother told the police that he should have been sleeping on the floor. That father has since been arrested. However, there is still no arrest made in the case of the six-year-old.

During the medical examination of these young rape victims a swab (the size of a cotton bud) is used to take a sample from the vagina and this procedure, Dr Knight said, often causes children to scream out in pain.

"And I say to myself, if this swab is so painful for them," [I can't imagine] "what the experience must have been like for these children," she said.

Once these children are found to have been sexually abused they are admitted at the hospital and are only discharged when a social worker gives the go ahead.

Knight said the doctors do not examine any child without an officer being present from the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).

"Whenever a child comes in, CISOCA is called, and one officer will interview the family while another will remain with the doctor while the child is being examined," she explained.

She said that in most cases the children are taken to the hospital by the mothers who sometimes have been aware that these children are being molested but feel powerless to act.

In a lot of the cases, Dr Knight, said these mothers were themselves raped as children.

"Most of the mothers who I interviewed know the children are being abused, but they are economically and physically disadvantaged because the man is going to beat them, and some even send out children for men to have sex with them," she said.

One mother, Dr Knight said, admitted to her that she had a similar experience as a child and it did not affect her. "So the mentality is the child is going to be all right too," said the doctor.

There is, however, the other end of the spectrum where there are distraught mothers who will even blame themselves for not having figured out what was going on.

Head of CISOCA, Superintendent Gladys Brown-Campbell, said she had no readily available statistics to indicate whether there has been an increase in the number of carnal abuse cases involving children, but said a lot of the offences, which were committed some time ago, are now being reported.

The multi-agency approach at CISOCA, which sees all the relevant State agencies such as the Child Development Agency and Office of the Children's Registry operating under one roof, is said to make it easier for these young victims.

"Everyone is on board and so the child does not have to tell the story twice," Brown-Campbell said.

According to Brown-Campbell, a lot of these children are being abused by relatives and close family friends.

"So be careful who you entrust your children to," she warned, adding that this is often the reason why the sexual abuse is not discovered earlier.

While most of the cases she has dealt with involve persons from the lower socio-economic strata of society, Dr Knight suggested that this was so only because they are the persons who mostly access the public health system.

She also said that a lot of these children will not readily reveal the identity of the perpetrator as they find it difficult to consolidate the two ideas that the person who is supposed to love and protect them is the one hurting them.

"We had a three-year-old who it took hours for her to talk, and then she finally said "mi father say me nuffi talk," Dr Knight said.

She explained that this is usually a confusing place for a child to be, as they often do not know what they are feeling at that time.

"When these little children grow up and realise that what happened was not supposed to happen, then they start to feel ashamed and this affects their self-esteem and values and they then engage in voluntary sex at a young age," she said.

While the majority of rapes are committed by adults, there are those occasions when the sexual act is done by an older child.

Dr Knight cited a case that came to her attention only last week in which a mother brought in her 11-year-old son for treatment because he was beaten by a neighbour.

"I asked the mother why the neighbour beat the little boy and the boy said ....(name omitted) say me rape him son dem, but me neva rape dem, is go me go inna di room and see dem a f... and me join in," Dr Knight said, adding that she was taken aback by how casually he expressed himself.

So traumatic are these and several other cases she has dealt with, that Dr Knight said it has begun to impact her and some of her colleagues personally, especially after the birth of her now six year-old daughter.

"It is difficult to see a four-year-old suffering like this, and so I get obsessive about who my daughter is staying with," she said, adding that no one, regardless of social status, is safe from this demon.

The human sexual centre, she explained, is in the most primitive part of the brain and this is the area which is impacted least by what is called common sense and is instead controlled more by reflexes and urges.

According Dr Knight, it all comes down to the sexual indiscipline and the inability to control one's urges.

Dr Knight said another of the driving forces which has led her to speak out about this scourge affecting society, is the many sexual dysfunctions among adults which can be traced back to their childhood

"A physician who is being divorced confided in me that he was sexually abused as a child and was having difficulty maintaining a relationship with a woman as he was sexually abused by a woman," she said, explaining further that having grown up in a poor family he was sent to board at a lady's house during his high school years and the lady took sex for rent.

As for the wheels of justice, Dr Knight is not convinced they are turning as fast as they should, as of all the cases she has treated over the years, she has only been called three times to be a witness in court, which could suggest that a lot of them do not get resolved.

She feels helpless at not having any one solution to the problem. However, she is hoping that by speaking out public awareness will be raised and responsible adults will be prompted to take action.

"My solutions are, one, to make society aware of the fact that they need to protect their children, and two, if you are a perpetrator you will be punished and lastly, to let everyone know that it is wrong to do this," she said.

As for Jamaica having a sex offenders registry to alert communities to the identity sex offenders, Knight does not believe this would work as smoothly in Jamaica as in the United States, because Jamaicans might not be mature enough to handle this because of the vigilante culture.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Horrific_11166833#ixzz1qpexKvHM

leanne, sure is disturbing, but consistent with what i've been witnessing in the interior of jamaica, away from the tourist areas . . . sad, sad, sad . . .

while in portland this past january, i was at a water pipe with three young kids. when i asked the oldest girl (11 yrs) why she was sucking her thumb, she replied "because my bigger brother is bothering me", the youngest boy stated that he's afraid of the same brother, and the middle boy was mute, not talking at all. . . . just broke my heart . . .

i work in treatment foster care and all my cases here at home have been just as bad as any of the jamaican cases, so, it does not only happen in the 3rd world, but rather, sexual abuse of young children is alive and on the rise here in canada. . . . i don't see a resolution anytime soon . . . education is the key . . .

the difference between the two instances is that in canada, the kids have more resources and protection.

Death would be too easy ... I'm sick to the pit of my stomach after reading this. How could anyone do this to an innocent child. Yes IMO death would be too easy.

Don't know what to say

bring back the gallows !!!

Hard Hard Topic - it is so important to talk about -

I have a lot to talk about - I studied this subject for almost ten years - I worked on coming full circle Lola - I spent some time with Youth perps - it helped my personal growth but it took years to get to that point -

one step at a time

I have to fly but I wanted to stop in quick and encourage this discussion - I have plenty to add but one can only face this in a certain frame of mind -

lets keep this thread active - its about all we can do at this point to help

I love you guys

(Suzen im dying to read about your trip ;-)

Castration is too good for them, monsters like that need to be put down like the rabid animals they are. PERIOD.

of the entire article, which literally got me sick to my stomach, this is the part that just simply enrages me most: "As for the wheels of justice, Dr Knight is not convinced they are turning as fast as they should, as of all the cases she has treated over the years, she has only been called three times to be a witness in court, which could suggest that a lot of them do not get resolved. "

CALLED ONLY THREE TIMES TO BE A WITNESS TO THE COURT IN ALL THOSE HEINOUS AND ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC CASES OF THE WORST FORM OF ABUSES COMMITTED BY HUMANS?????

What am I to conclude from this? Does that mean that even the worst of the worst, the utter scum, do not get punished as they deserve, do not get put away so they cannot harm others??????? Because if not that, then what? Is there any form of justice at all that is ever seen, is ever given???

I know I posted before, and it wasn't posted because of a swear word I am assuming, and that's okay.

But I didn't say something before and need to say it now, as it is really bothering me...am I right in understanding that someone posted here that they DID NOTHING WHEN A SMALL BOY WAS EATING OUT A GROWN WOMAN'S PUSSY RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM??????????????????

WHAT ON EARTH??? YES, I'M SHOUTING, I'M BEYOND FURIOUS, I'M SHAKING I'M SO ANGRY, AT WHAT POINT DOES CONFORMITY TO EVIL BECOME COMPLICITY???? I WOULD SAY AT THAT POINT RIGHT THERE, AND I'M SORRY, I AM NOT GOING TO REMAIN SILENT ANYMORE BUT AM GOING TO COME RIGHT OUT AND SAY THAT ANYONE THAT WATCHES SUCH AN ACT AND SAYS AND DOES NOTHING...never mind..I will censor my own damn self, but honestly, what is really upsetting me is that I'm the FIRST person to say something about that?????

And yeah, at a certain point all that peace and harmony and one love is bullshit if it is a copout to allow a pedophile to go free while committing such sick ATROCITIES...

I am really hoping this doesn't get censored, I really don't know any other way of expressing myself, except to say that if ANYTHING like that ever happened in front of me, it would be UGLY and I do mean freaking HELLUFIED ugly what would happen next, you can best BELIEVE that, and I would be doing so with full knowledge of what could be the possible consequences, but at a certain point, there are some things, that no matter where I am or who I am with I will NOT allow to continue in front of me, period, and I will face the consequences of making the other person face theirs.

Couldn't get to sleep for the longest time after reading this last night. Have not been able to respond due to my filthy mouth. I'm going to try-

I do not believe that there has been a proven correlation between people who have been sexually abused and those who commit the abuse. I believe that people who have sex with children LIKE TO F$#% CHILDREN!!!!! How can any excuse be made for this behavior? Ohhhhh yes--- there is the excuse that some idiot men in Jamaica believe that having sex with a virgin will cleanse them of sexually transmitted diseases- how's that for an excuse?

If every person who has ever been abused in any way then grows up to abuse do they deserve compassion? In my book? Hell NO. If this were the case then if Smokey beat me we would all say poor Smokey he was beat as a child? Well, Smokey was beat as a child and has never laid a hand on me..... in 30 years.

People need to reprogram their thinking when it comes to child sex offenders. No more excuses or "treatment programs". IF you believe that there is a "cure" for pedophiles then you must believe that there is a "cure" for homosexuality and a "cure" for hetrosexuality. Because just as people who have sex with same sex, opposite sex and children--- they do it because it is their orientation. In the case of pedophiles it is a sick, twisted preference. There is no fix~~~ as Tammy said before- death is too good for them.

I feel that one of the first step in eradicating this behavior is EXPOSURE.

I was babysitting my sweet, tiny granddaughter this weekend, and while she was napping, I opened this discussion and started to read. I could not continue on after the first few paragraphs. All I could think of was the innocence of children and how they love and trust us unconditionally. I cried. I hugged my granddaughter long and hard when she woke up from her nap. I cried again.

Tonight I decided it was my duty to finish reading this report. I've always known this happens but to read it so explicitly...!!!

I cried again. We have to do something. Oceans of tears can't make it better. What can?