Dear Editor,

It is no longer acceptable for us to sit idly by while the cruel steal, kill and destroy the lives of our children. We have heard and read of the ordeal that the 12-year-old girl from St Andrew was forced to undergo at the hands of 27-year-old taxi driver of Sterling Castle, Garsha Wilson.

He brutally raped and attempted to murder the young girl by strangulation to the point of unconsciousness before burying her in a shallow grave. He then had gall to pretend to assist her mother to search for her when she did not arrive at her mother’s location.

This young man, Garsha Wilson, was known by the girl and the family and used this access and trust to carry out his evil actions. We cannot sit down and allow individuals, when convicted, to not even for a minute be able to serve their sentences and seek to seamlessly re-integrate into our society.

Statistics from a Canadian-based study have identified that the recidivism rate for sex offenders can be as high as 70 per cent. This has been attributed to the fact that this is a psychological problem and has to be addressed as such, but unfortunately is not currently being addressed as a part of any reformation strategy in our prisons. It cannot be acceptable to allow sex offenders not to be clearly identified for all to be aware, especially in cases where our justice system may have proven itself inadequate to allocate punishment matching the crime.

A similar situation occurred in the United States in the now famous case of Dru Sjodin. Dru Sjodin was a 22-year-old university student of North Dakota who was abducted, sexually assaulted and brutally murdered by Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. This case sparked the development of the National Sex Offenders Public Registry and subsequently the National Sex Offenders Public Website, www.nsopw.gov/Core/Portal.aspx.

It is imperative that as a nation we leverage our resources appropriately towards the protection and safety of our youth because therein lies the key to sustained national development. This case of sex offender Garsha Wilson needs to be our Waterloo. This needs to be our point of reclamation of lost values. If anything can be done, let us do something. In order to possibly save and prevent a similar fate for countless other victims, we need to establish a similar public sex offenders registry and website for Jamaica.

The template has already been set by the United States and we already have the local expertise that can replicate such a website. All that is needed is the willpower to coordinate the provision of the relevant documents from our justice and legal representatives to establish the registry. This call goes out to all well-thinking Jamaicans who would not want to see a repeat of what happened in this case as well as numerous other cases of emotional abuse on our nation’s children. Let’s petition those we know in the justice and legal systems to direct movement and resources towards the establishment of this sex offenders registry and website.

JO Newby

Kingston

jaye77@gmail.com