IT should never have happened.

The fact that it did, two days before Mother’s Day and nine days into our annual observation of Child Month, made the brutal killing of nine year-old Kelsey Ferrigon in Spanish Town, St Catherine, even more gut-wrenching.

Consider the excruciating pain now being felt by this child’s mother, Ms Georgia Anderson, her family, friends, neighbours, and school community; the great sense of loss they all must now bear for the rest of their lives.

We join National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang in condemning the heartless murder of this little girl, a child who, given her age and size, could not have mounted a defence against the barbarian(s) who attacked her.

We, too, hope that the scum responsible for this murder will be caught, tried, and made to face the full force of the law which, we recommend, should be life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As we have pointed out before, parents losing children, and especially in such gruesome circumstances, is not unique to Jamaica. There are evil people in every country who spare no thought in taking life, leaving families and communities torn and asking, after each vile act: Why?

Unfortunately, Jamaica has been down this road too many times. Just two years ago the nation was shocked by the gruesome murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe who was abducted from school and her throat slashed. Last December the woman responsible for that heinous act was sentenced to life in prison.

Before that, in January 2022, the country was stunned by the savage murder of nine-year-old Gabriel King in St James. We also cannot forget the abduction, rape, and murder of six-year-old Shanika Anderson in downtown Kingston 20 years ago; nor the case of 14-year-old Yetanya Francis who was raped, stabbed and burnt while on her way to buy a meal from a community shop in Arnett Gardens, St Andrew, in August 2018.

Those are just a few acts of savagery that are a manifestation of the epidemic of violence that too many of us have come to accept as normal — a reality that is even more disturbing given the silence with which these atrocities are treated by people quick to mount soapboxes on other issues.

Our report of little Kelsey Ferrigon’s murder in today’s edition points out that at the start of Child Month, Ms Nicole Patrick Shaw, chair of the National Child Month Committee, reported that an environmental assessment conducted last December showed an increase in child violence across the country.

The study found that 168 children under 17 years old were killed between 2020 and 2024, while another 351 suffered gunshot injuries.

Additionally, the data showed that 1,439 children — 253 of them between three and 10 years old — were victims of rape between 2020 and 2024.

While much has been done over the years to protect children, much more is needed.

We reiterate that a key element to reinstating self-respect and value for human life is for communities to recognise and accept that they have a role to play in making this a more peaceful society — safer for all of us, not least children. In that regard, we believe that programmes already implemented by the State to entrench that culture should be strengthened with the continued support of the Church, Opposition, community organisations, and groups that have come to be labelled civil society.

It requires a lot of effort, but we cannot afford to yield.