The Child Care Board is on alert and the Royal Barbados Police Force is investigating a case of what appears to be child abuse in relation to a video sent to the DAILY NATION which shows a young woman kicking a baby in the head and face multiple times with her right foot.
As a man in the background tells the woman to stop kicking the baby and picks her up, the mother moves on the bed and tells the child she hates her.
Another video, reported to be of the same people, shows the baby crawling outside on the ground and a man saying: “She call sheself a mother, in a house sitting down and she child through a door.”
When the man (who is filming) calls the mother to take the child, she appears in a vest and underwear and takes the little girl inside.
Yet another video shows her feeding the child with some large portions while a male voice again speaks to her about the way she is treating the baby.
Director of the Child Care Board, Joan Crawford, said yesterday the video of the kicking was sent to one of their officers and they had in turn referred it to the police.
She added that no moves had been made by the state agency in terms of care for the child as they were waiting on the police to get a name and location.
Police public relations officer Acting Inspector Roland Cobbler confirmed they were aware of the incident.
“Once anything is on social media that has criminal connotation, we will investigate for sure. The video has been drawn to our attention and we will be investigating,” he said.
Meanwhile, the kicking drew strong condemnation on the social networks where the videos were first posted. Some said the young woman needed mental health support.
One person charged that the Child Care Board did not do enough and that was why “so many people treat their children badly” while others out there would love to have a child to take care of but could not get any.
The person who did the recording was also admonished for failing to report the matter to the Child Care Board. Commenters were not sure if he was the father but said he should have also reported the matter to the police. (SAT)
