KINGSTON, Jamaica — Child advocate and founder of Hear the Children’s Cry, Betty Ann Blaine has challenged Prime Minister Andrew Holness to declare a ‘National Zero-Tolerance Campaign’ for child abusers and murderers, in a bid to address the carnage of children and prevent the issue becoming a “new normal of our society”.

Blaine also called on the prime minister to convene a ‘Child Emergency Summit’ and bring together critical stakeholders from every sector of the society, to agree and implement a five-point, doable, ‘Action Plan for Child Safety and Protection’.

In a letter addressed to the prime minster, Blaine argued that “We cannot continue to live like this.  If the children are sick, then the society is sick, and we now need a strong dose of medicine to cure the sickness and to stop the contagion”.

She urged the government to relentlessly pursue child killers and bring them to justice as “it cannot be that child murderers and child serial killers are walking around scot-free in the society to kill again and with absolutely no regard or consequence for their crimes”.

Blaine also reminded Holness that after eight years, the killer(s) of 11 year-old Ananda Dean have still not been brought to justice.

She called on him to strengthen the penalties for child abusers and murderers and  utilise substantial communications networks to consistently teach children how to protect themselves and to teach better parenting skills.

She also issued a call for him to regulate the proliferation of “robot taxis” transporting children and marshal both human and financial resources to address the crisis.

Blain’s appeal follows the most recent killing of a schoolgirl in St James, whose body was found three days after she went missing.

In addition, the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) on Wednesday disclosed that members of the clergy and policemen are the most consistent culprits having sex with girls under the age of 16.