Amidst increasingly louder calls for the Sex Offender Registry to be open to the public, the Government has given the clearest indication yet that this could be considered.

“We believe that consideration needs to be given to making the Sex Offender Registry public and stronger sanctions against prescribed persons such as police, teachers, coaches, and pastors, to name a few, who abuse children sexually and otherwise, as they have a higher duty of care,” declared minister of state in the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information Robert Nesta Morgan in a release yesterday.

Morgan did not say if his ministry would be making this recommendation to the Cabinet but he made it clear that there is a need for legislative changes to better protect Jamaica’s children.

He pointed to the recent bloody incident at the cult-like Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries in Montego Bay, St James, and argued that this should focus the mind on the grave risks to Jamaica’s children.

“It should also highlight legislative and policy gaps that we as a Government need to address urgently,” added Morgan.

Fourteen children were placed in State care by the police after they were taken from the Pathways premises on the night of October 17, 2021 when two adults were murdered, their throats slashed, and another was stabbed and shot in what was said to be a human sacrifice ritual presided over by the organisation’s leader Kevin Smith.

Smith, who appointed to himself the title “His Excellency”, died in a motor vehicle crash on the Linstead bypass in St Catherine on Monday while being taken by police from Montego Bay to Kingston for further questioning and to be charged with murder, wounding with intent and illegal possession of a firearm.

News emerged later that day that Smith had been convicted of a sex crime in Canada in 2007.

Yesterday, Morgan said people found guilty of illegal sexual acts should not be allowed around children or given prominence in the society.

“Stated more clearly, ‘His Excellency’, as he called himself, and others of his ilk should not have been allowed to associate with any child. He was a convicted sex offender and the system must empower parents and others to more easily identify these sexual predators,” declared Morgan.

He said the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is committed to continuing the work to reform Jamaica’s laws and policies.

“The epidemic of child abuse is gripping the nation and I call on all well-thinking Jamaicans to recognise that we are a nation in crisis. The Government remains committed to protecting our children and ask all Jamaicans to report what they know by calling 211. Our future is too important to abuse,” said Morgan.

He added that recent events should raise concern nationally regarding the treatment of children and who is allowed to be close to the nation’s children.

According to Morgan, his ministry remains very concerned at the number of incidents in which people who should be positive guides to children are sex offenders or have been arrested for child abuse.

“While it would not be appropriate to comment on cases before the courts, we wish to remind parents of the dangers of sexual abuse within society and that the persons we are seeing as perpetrators are persons who have won the trust of families and children.

“Now, more than ever, we must secure the future of our children from these predators,” said Morgan.

Established in July 2014, the Sex Offender Registry is managed by the Department of Correctional Services, but the names, addresses, and other important details it contains about convicted sex offenders are available to only the police, people engaged in professional counselling of sex offenders, people managing educational institutions where they are enrolled or seeking to be enrolled, people managing facilities that treat vulnerable individuals, as well as prospective employers and employees of sex offenders.

But child rights activists have long argued that to better protect the children the public should have access to the registry.

Just last week children’s advocacy organisation Hear The Children’s Cry argued that the public has a right to know who and where convicted sexual offenders are.

“Since we’re told by the experts that paedophilia is incurable, we are bound with the responsibility to protect the children,” said Hear The Children’s Cry founder Betty Ann Blaine.

This followed a similar call in June by director of Eve for Life Joy Crawford.

Speaking at a sexual abuse and child trafficking seminar initiated by the Ministry of Education at the time, Crawford said, “The Sex Offender Registry cannot be private. It’s been too long in secret, and we don’t know if anything is even in it. It’s not rocket science, because if the convictions are made public in the media, then we should be able to see the registry.”