Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness has condemned the recent brutal beating of a 14-year-old girl in Denbigh, Clarendon.
The teen was ambushed and beaten mercilessly by a group of women, rendering her unconscious. A video of the incident has been circulating on social media, and shows the group seemingly cornering and then beating the teen to an unconscious state.
It is understood that the teenager was not the intended target of last month’s attack, but rather, her mother.
The police had initially stated that an adult woman among the now accused persons is reportedly in a love triangle involving herself, her boyfriend, and another woman.
Holness said the incident is a sad reflection on the society and is an illustration of the challenges the country face in tackling not only the quantity, but also the severity of crimes.
“I was very distressed by this kind of savage violence being unleashed on a child by adults who seem to have no faculty of understanding that this is something that should not be done,” he stated.
“And even after they were being taken away, they seem to be as if they did nothing wrong. It’s confounding to me how people can be so brutish to each other, and it is worrisome,” Mr. Holness added.
Holness noted that the incident reinforces the need for an increased social response to violence, while adding that the society has normalize issues such as the beating of children and intimate partner violence.
“No amount of policing is going to solve those issues, and that is why the Government, having made the massive investments in the police, the military and the security architecture, we are now shifting to build out a parallel system of delivering the social services that are needed to treat with violence,” the Prime Minister stated.
Charges have been laid against seven persons, including four teenagers, in connection with the December 30 brutal beating of the teenage girl.
The injured teen was later assisted to the hospital, where she was admitted in serious condition.
She has since been released from the hospital, but now suffers from some memory loss and walks with a limp.
