Children’s rights group, Hear The Children’s Cry, is condemning the brutal rape and murder of 10-year-old Shani Coke in Trelawny on Tuesday.
The partially nude body of Coke, affectionately called ‘Kaidra’, was found with her throat slashed on a dirt track in bushes in Tyre district near Troy.
The police say a mob attack followed the discovery, resulting in the death of a man identified as Delroy Coke.
Residents accused him of raping and killing the child.
His father was also attacked, but his condition is not known.
Coke was a student at Troy Primary School.
Director of the rights group, Nigel Cooper, is calling for radical action to protect the nation’s most vulnerable.
“Jamaicans need to demand urgent and effective action from our Government,” said Cooper in a statement on Wednesday.
“We need to come together as communities to protect our most vulnerable members, and our nation needs to draw strength and build protection for children from our Christian foundations,” he continued.
Cooper renewed the organisation’s call for the establishment of a Ministry of Family and Parenting, “where the needs of our most vulnerable citizens are in the public eye every week.”
“We need specific interventions for issues within the home; we must have another type of intervention for when children are in public spaces, and yet another set of institution-related interventions for when our youngsters are at school.”
For her part, Hear The Children’s Cry director and spokesperson, Priscilla Duhaney, expressed sadness over the incident.
“We have become an ‘anti-child society’ in more ways than one. When it’s not rape or sexual assault, it’s murder or both – effectively robbing our children of their innocence and, in many cases, their lives. Our youngsters are at risk of violence at home, at risk in public spaces and at risk at school,” said Duhaney.
She is calling on Jamaicans to be alert and observe the actions of people around children.
“We are appealing to parents, community residents and society at large to be more vigilant, especially during the long summer period when our children are more exposed to violence and crime due to a lack of supervision and the need for greater engagement. The Church should engage children in their communities through summer programmes for their spiritual and social development.”