Spokesperson for lobby group Hear The Children Cry (HTCC) Priscilla Duhaney has argued that faced with pressure for sex, young girls in some inner-city communities often deliberately go missing to escape the predators.

Duhaney, an attorney-at-law, made the statement as she urged lawmakers on Tuesday not to decriminalise or amend legislation to allow for close in age sex or for minors.

She was appearing before the joint select committee of Parliament reviewing the 2018 Child Diversion Act with a view to strengthening the legislation.

In her build-up, Duhaney charged that children, mainly girls, in some garrison communities are coerced into sexual activities by gangsters who are as young as 17 years old.

She said while there is legislation dealing with coercion in sex crimes, “What we need to understand also is the realities of our society is that there are a lot of situations where even though it might seem consensual, it would have been based on coercion but you cannot prove that.”

Duhaney told the committee that girls under 16 years old are often pressured for sex by dons and other influential members of garrison communities. She said it was in these circumstances, out of fear, that many children are reported missing.

According to Duhaney, HTCC dedicates a lot of time to the cause of missing children and, “often times the escape mechanism is for our children to be reported as missing because they are trying to hide from the dons who are soliciting them for sexual gratification.”

The attorney-at-law argued that, “if we are going to remove the law, then it is going to open up the floodgates where the law enforcement cannot prosecute or hold accountable [people who prey on the children].”

At that point she was interrupted by committee member Isat Buchanan, the Member of Parliament for Portland Eastern, who questioned, “just for clarity, and for the public, are you saying that dons are now under the age of 16 as well?”

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, who chairs the committee, pointed to the recommendation from a 2017 joint select committee for a close-in-age exception that would allow sexual relations between a 15-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man. He has publicly signalled that the Government is minded to accept the recommendation which will be addressed by an amendment to the Sexual Offences law.

“Are you saying that dons are under 19,” Chuck asked Duhaney.

She told the legislators that children can be dons at 17, adding that, “We have data to show that these criminals that are carrying out their enterprise are actually children at 17.”

Duhaney said research has shown that these 17 year olds, though still legally minors, wield a lot of influence in their communities.

Not satisfied with her response, Buchanan pointed to Jamaica’s constitutional framework and the Child Diversion Act and highlighted that “The House [of Representatives] doesn’t legislate [selectively] — it’s not garrison legislation.

“We legislate for all children so you never know where they are and so once they are in conflict with the law we have to divert them. We can’t legislate just thinking about the garrisons, a child in Canada and in the UK [United Kingdom], they breathe the same air as the ones here in Jamaica and…the same UN Convention that applies to children all over the world we have to treat Jamaican children exactly like that and take them wherever we find them and treat them as children,” said Buchanan.

“It seems a bit problematic when we start to go into certain areas in Jamaica and say the children are somehow different,” Buchanan added.

But Duhaney argued that it was never HTCC’s intention to give that impression, or focus so much on coercion and the garrisons.

“I was just giving some background as to what other supporters and what other researchers have indicated and why we have this particular view,” declared Duhaney.

Meanwhile, the HTCC representative reminded the committee of the consequences that could flow from legal and consensual sex between minors, including teenage pregnancies, the spread of sexually transmitted infections — especially in situations where youngsters had multiple partners, and mental health issues.

“Sometimes people tend to disregard these consequences that flow,” argued Duhaney.