KINGSTON, Jamaica — Member of Parliament for Eastern St Thomas, Michelle Charles, yesterday urged Davian Bryan, the man suspected of abducting two girls in the parish last week, to turn himself in to the security forces.

“What is most alarming is that the subject is still at large. I say to him and all those involved, turn yourself into the police. You are in the wrong constituency. We are the constituency of Paul Bogle, and you will be found,” Charles said.

“I cringed at every Ananda alert, I weep with every news report of another boy or girl gone missing. When will it stop?” The MP questioned in her contribution to the State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives.

Charles, who represents the constituency in which the young girls were kidnapped, noted that the young people in the area are ambitious and only need an opportunity.

“Let me take the opportunity to thank the Ministry of National Security, along with the security forces, the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force), JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force), the military and firefighters for the outstanding job they have been doing in St Thomas and Jamaica at large,” she said.

“Over the weekend, our skills were tested the most.  Two young girls — Phylisa and Winshae  —  were abducted by a man who was out on bail.  Madam Speaker, when I heard of the act, I cringed, and as a mother, my heart broke and I cried. Like many others I had several sleepless nights,” she said.

“An African proverb states that it takes a village to raise a child and Madam Speaker, our village came out in droves to rescue our children. We had a manhunt on the ground, including our security forces. People came from near and far and I want to thank each and every citizen and volunteer that assisted the security forces. Thank you to those who prayed for their safety,” she said.

She continued: “Did you see what happened in Eastern St Thomas? An African proverb says, when spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion!  Madam Speaker, my tears of sadness quickly turned to anger and I want to warn those monsters in our society that we are watching and we will not accommodate your nastiness. We will not accommodate your stalking, raping and terrorising our children. I am calling on all well-thinking Jamaicans, men and women, to push them out from the darkness. Let us know who they are. Everything done in the dark must come to light,” she added.

Charles also called for a restructuring of the mechanism, “to ensure that we know who is living among us… There is a reason why we have a sex offenders registry. The reason is to identify these persons so that we can protect the community”.

She said, however, that this is not effectively being done now.

“I am calling for a more effective system and all necessary legislative changes that are required to create the framework needed for us to be able to protect our children and our community from the claws of these beasts. We have to get this under control, so we in Jamaica can live and those abroad can visit,” she noted.

She also said that there are many issues to consider when evaluating the bail system in Jamaica, and expressed her concern that “when someone is placed on bail and is prohibited from a community where an offence is alleged to have occurred. They now have to move to a different community”.

“That shifting of the problem can lead to multiple problems unless there is structured monitoring of persons who are on bail. For instance, we had over 800 persons looking for one man in my constituency. Imagine Madam Speaker, if that one man had on an ankle bracelet.”

“I am calling for the use of technology to enhance the capabilities of the security system to be able to track somebody. We should not have so much difficulty finding someone that is interacting with our court. If he had an ankle bracelet, we would have known exactly where he took it off, if he took it off, or where he is, if he had it on,” she concluded.

Balford Henry