KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – Local Government Minister Noel Arscott has called for an immediate probe into the status of infirmaries across the island after a 69 year-old resident at an infirmary in the eastern parish of St Mary was sexually assaulted.
The incident at the Port Maria Infirmary has been condemned by many, including the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) spokesman on Local Government, Desmond McKenzie, who has supported the probe.
Arscott said an assessment would be done and the findings used to determine corrective measures.
Meanwhile, the Child Development Agency (CDA) has increased security at the Granville Place of Safety in the northern parish of Trelawny after a 16-year old female ward of the state, who ran away from the facility, was found dead on Thursday.
The CDA said that the unidentified child along with another inmate were able to leave the facility on Sunday after being assisted by someone who cut a hole in the newly-erected perimeter fence.
The police said the girls were at a house in the company of two men when one of them became sick.
Investigators theorise that the men believed the teenager had died and buried her. A 19-year-old is assisting the police with their investigations.