KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) wants the Sexual Offences Act to include provisions to deal with men who “intentionally and maliciously” have sex with virgins, including children, as a cure for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

According to Children’s Advocate, Diahann Gordon Harrison, it is a well known myth, in some quarters, that if a man has a sexually transmitted disease, he stands a good chance of being cured by having intercourse with a virgin.

Harrison noted that there is a greater probability of finding a virgin within the child population, than the adult population.

“In fact, some may argue that the younger the child, the more likely that he or she will fit the bill,” she noted.

She pointed out that the Child Care and Protection Act is “already partially akin to this school of thought”, as it speaks to a person being charged or convicted of committing certain sexual acts against a child, being required to submit to medical examination and testing for the purpose of ascertaining whether such person is the carrier of a communicable disease.

However, she says that a new provision is needed in the Sexual Offences Act with a graver penalty, if it can be proven that the disease has been passed on to a child by a perpetrator in those circumstances.

A news report in the Jamaica Observer in April 2012, stated that children, as young as four years old, had been treated for gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes and HIV at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, after being raped by close family members including their fathers.

They were among over 7,000 Jamaican children who reportedly had been sexually assaulted over the previous four years, according to complaints received by the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR).

Balford Henry