For the second time in under two months, the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) is probing a sexual assault case involving students of Dunrobin Primary School in St Andrew.

According to the investigating officer, Corporal Janet Gowdie, five boys between the ages of nine and 11 allegedly sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl the second day of the new school term on September 5, after one of the boys lured her off the school compound, during school hours, to a house where four others waited.

But the case was not brought to CISOCA’s attention until about two months later on October 30. This was about three weeks after the centre had opened investigations into a report that five boys, four of them nine years old and one 11, allegedly sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl at the school on September 28.

That case was reported more than a week after the incident.

All nine boys in the second case appeared before the Family Court last Friday where they and the complainant were found, under the Child Care and Protection Act, to be in need of care and protection, and social inquiry reports commissioned for them.

Under Section eight of the act, a child in need of care and protection is one who, among other things, is “falling into bad association, exposed to moral danger or beyond control”.

Corporal Gowdie said the five boys in the first case were all granted $40,000 – $50,000 bail, while two of the boys in the second case were bailed for a similar amount. The other boys were not offered bail. They and the complainant in the second case were remanded to places of safety.

Meanwhile, Corporal Gowdie said CISOCA intends to conduct workshops at the school.

“We plan to go to the school to talk to the students and parents, because the parents need some education too [with regard to] sexual offences,” Gowdie said.

She said the events in the new case were exposed after the girl’s father heard some students calling her derogatory names. His daughter subsequently told him what had happened and he reported the matter to school authorities.

Gowdie said the school acted swiftly, as the same afternoon the principal and the guidance counsellor rounded up the accused boys and took them to CISOCA.

The matter was heard by the court on November 2 and the boys remanded to places of safety until last Friday, November 17.

All parties return to court December 15, when social inquiry reports should have been prepared for all the children.