PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (CATT) says more than 900 children have been sexually abused during a nine month period.

In its “Statistical Report on Sexual Abuse against Children in Trinidad and Tobago,” the CATT said that for the period May 18, 2015 to February this year, 4,158 children in need of care, protection and rehabilitation were brought to the attention of the authority.

“Of this, approximately 915 cases or one in five reports was categorised as sexual abuse,” the CATT said, adding the majority of sexual abuse cases brought to its attention involved female children (86.8 per cent), while 13.2 per cent of sexual abuse cases involved male children.

“While children of all age groups were victims of sexual abuse, the majority of children involved in sexual abuse cases reported to the Authority were between the ages of 10 and 15 years old, with 23.9 per cent of these children belonging to the 10-13 age group and 28.9 per cent to the 14-15 age group.”

The CATT said that 18 per cent of all children involved in sexual abuse cases were between the ages of 16 to 17 years old.

The CATT said that while girls are predominately reported as the victims of sexual abuse, during the Authority’s first nine months of operations there were 148 cases of boys who were sexually abused in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Alarmingly, the highest percentage of cases of sexual abuse against boys reported to the Authority involved boys between the ages of 4 and 6 years old (26.4 per cent). Of all reports of sexual abuse against boys, 22.3 per cent involved boys between the ages of 10 and 13 years old, while 17.6 per cent involved boys between the ages of 7 and 9 years old.

“While 15.5 per cent of these cases involved boys between the ages of 14 and 15 years, 10.1 per cent of all sexual abuse cases against boys involved toddlers (boys 3 years old and younger),” the CATT added.

The Authority also noted that during the nine month period, 2.8 per cent of all reported cases of sexual abuse against children occurred in Tobago.

“Cases of sexual abuse against children were the second highest category of care and protection reported in Tobago during the Authority’s first nine months of operations. Of all reported cases of children in need of care and protection originating from Tobago, 23.8 per cent were cases of sexual abuse against children.

Overall, the CATT said that there were 195 cases of children committing sexual offences against other children -child on child abuse – during the nine month period.

“The majority of the clients in these cases were females (72.8 per cent) while more than one quarter of the clients (27.2 per cent) of these specific cases were males,” it added.