There is much that remains murky regarding the horrific tragedy in the remote community of Troy, southern Trelawny, last week.

What we know for sure is that an innocent 10 year-old girl, Shani Coke, was murdered — presumably also raped — and her alleged attacker, described by locals as a repeat sex offender, was mobbed and beaten to death.

Also, at last check, the father of the deceased man was in serious condition in hospital after being battered by the mob. Reports suggest father and son are actually blood relatives of the murdered 10-year-old.

To further complicate matters, police detention of a man alleged to have been involved in the mob lynching led to angry protests in Troy, with locals insisting he has been wrongly targeted.

Even from a distance its crystal clear that grief and anger are intertwined and at very high levels in Troy.

The Gleaner newspaper cites residents as accusing the police of not responding appropriately to their long-standing allegations. They claim that the victim of the mob killing — who is said to have spent five years in prison for molesting a child before being released sometime back — posed a direct threat to the community.

Police apparently felt they lacked required evidence to act.

One mother told the Gleaner that she made a report to the police after seeing the alleged sex offender at her window. She said she grew fearful when, instead of police visiting, she was summoned to the station and warned.

She said she subsequently restricted her children from playing outside unsupervised, and also accompanied her son to school daily.

Hopefully we will get word from the police regarding their side of such stories.

Inevitably, we think, the tragedy in Troy will revive debate about how to treat with convicted sex offenders. There have been suggestions that a list of such people — a register — should be opened to public scrutiny instead of merely those “deemed to have legitimate interest”, including the police.

A very legitimate fear is that such a move could lead to vigilantism as occurred in Troy.

We wonder if a more worthwhile consideration could be the use of available technology — such as electronic tags — so that law enforcement officers are kept aware regarding offenders’ whereabouts.

Beyond the above, how do communities better address challenges such as have faced Troy?

We are struck that, apart from making allegations at the local level, there appears to have been no coordinated action to bring the community’s fears and concerns to authorities at the highest level.

That underlines our long-standing contention that community organisation and leadership training should be a matter of high priority in our country.

What if a well-organised, well-led Troy had taken their fears and concerns not just to the police station but to the high command of the police force?

And what if after recognising existing dangers, a well-led, organised Troy, as a whole, had come to a determination that children, women, girls… should not be walking alone?

We will never know for sure. But for the greater good of us all these are questions we should all be contemplating. That’s with a longer view to preventing tragedies such as occurred in Troy last week.