PERSONS who fail or neglect to report cases of abuse against children cannot be charged under the Childcare and Protection Act, as the regulations to ensure prosecution are still not in place.

Acting Children's Registry head Grace-Ann McFarlane says while the registry is performing its core functions of receiving reports of child abuse, the penalties under the 2004 Act still cannot be enforced.

Under section six of the Act, an offence is created if an individual fails to report to the registry, that a child is in need of care and protection, or that an offence has occurred. Failure to report, according to the law, will result in a hefty $500,000 fine or six months in jail.

"Currently because the regulations have not been passed, charges cannot be brought, and that is the main outstanding thing now,"McFarlane told the Observer. "But the other core functions of the registry is in place."
She said a revised first draft of the regulations is now in the possession of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel.

"What happened, I believe, is that with the budget being tabled in the House, certain things had been put on hold; we are anticipating that with the budget being over now, attention will be paid to the things that are outstanding. I don't want to give a timeframe, but it has not yet been passed," McFarlane said.

In the meantime, she said a total 55 reports were received through a toll free line introduced in January to receive reports of human trafficking and child abuse.
"The thing is, the registry is carrying out its core function of receiving reports of child abuse. The assessments are being done and the referrals are being made for the investigations to be done based on the reports received," McFarlane insisted.

She however said the numbers might be more as some persons were still reporting to the Child Development Agency(CDA) instead of the registry.
"What I can tell you is that the calls have been increasing. What we have been doing is holding a lot of public education and face-to- face meetings with our stakeholders, also educating persons ... so it is catching on and for May, the numbers have actually been high."

She said a 'wide spectrum' of reports have been pouring in.
"Everything, as a matter of a fact, has been coming in - physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect..."
"Sexual abuse seems to be on the rise. It is featuring a lot. But remember that these are reports. It does not necessarily mean that when an investigation is conducted that this is so, because the law says persons must make reports where there is suspicion or where it is known for a fact," she noted.
In the meantime, she said all cases for investigation were referred to the CDA.

Meanwhile, a resident magistrate attached to one of the island's courts said the best recourse was to have the registry fully operational.

"The only issue is that fine legal point about the offence of failure to report to the registry. The registry would be awaiting the regulations to have full legal constitution and if a case comes before the courts, it is possible for a defence attorney to argue that perhaps the person should not be charged for failure to report to the registry, since the registry is not properly constituted under law; I cannot tell you what the decision would be but I would encourage that having reached this far, hurry and get to the next stage," she advised.

According to the RM, "It would be a legal tangle. So the best situation is for the registry to be up, fully operational and legally constituted but they seem to have had a soft start to it."

She noted further that when the registry is fully constituted, it will enable successful prosecutions to be brought against family members, doctors, or schools, among others, who know or suspect that a child is being abused but opt not to report.
"If that is the situation when the registry is fully constituted, a successful prosecution can be brought to say you knew, you suspected and you ought to have reported," she added.

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