Haunted by assault trauma
Former ward of the State demands exit of Gage-Grey
Published:Wednesday | January 18, 2023 | 1:45 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
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A former ward of the state who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a policeman who held a gun to her head was among protesters outside the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) headquarters on Tuesday demanding the resignation of...
A former ward of the state who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a policeman who held a gun to her head was among protesters outside the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) headquarters on Tuesday demanding the resignation of its CEO Rosalee Gage-Grey.
The protesters, dressed in black, joined the crescendo of calls for an overhaul of State-run children's homes and for the scandal-scarred agency chief executive to step aside after an Office of the Children's Advocate report alleging “gross breach of the duty of care owed to wards of the State and former wards”.
Monique Baines, now an adult, said that she is still haunted by memories of her trauma, which was allegedly reportedly to the Child Development Agency, precursor to the CPFSA. She said no one was held culpable for the crime.
“If mi ever take off mi clothes, unnu cry shame … ,” said Baines, eventually showing her self-inflicted scars after reported being forced to perform oral sex on the cop.
“... When him a go discharge, him draw fi a plate … and ejaculate and say, 'Nyam it!' Unnu woulda must think mi emotionally unstable for months,” she lamented during an interview with The Gleaner on Tuesday.
The incident reportedly occurred at the Stony Hill Police Station while she was a 14-year-old ward.
The date of the incident was not disclosed nor did Baines suggest that it occurred under Gage-Grey's stewardship.
But it is that pain, Baines said, that drove her to join the demonstrators calling for action against Gage-Grey and the CPFSA.
“Unnu expect mi nah go come out ya when people a protest against unnu. ... Counselling nuh work if we nuh get justice. If mi nuh see nobody get lock up, the counselling nuh work,” Baines said.
A CPFSA spokesperson told The Gleaner that she was not familiar with the former ward or the alleged incident but would refer the claims to the agency's investigators.
Addressing the House of Representatives two Tuesdays ago, Education Minister Fayval Williams urged Gage-Grey to step aside to allow for acting Permanent Secretary Maureen Dwyer and the Public Service Commission to scrutinise her leadership of the agency and determine her fate.
In a Gleaner interview on Tuesday, PSC Chairman Alvin McIntosh said that he might have an update today on the fact-finding probe.
“I'm not in a position to give you any information now. We're have a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday), so perhaps after that … . A regular Public Service Commission meeting, but you know that certainly will be an item for discussion as well. ... It will be on the agenda for discussion,” McIntosh said.
Gage-Grey has not publicly addressed the report findings but was understood to still be running the operations at the CPSFA up to Tuesday.
In March 2021, Nationwide News Network reported about the partnership between the CPFSA and Carl Robanske's charity Embracing Orphans, which led to the establishment of The Father's House, a transitional facility for female wards of the State in 2014.
The CPFSA learnt of Robanske's past from as early as 2018 but the relationship was only severed in 2021.
Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison detailed a series of alleged sexual-related engagements Robanske had with some of the female wards of the State, including fondling on a trip to Dunn's River Falls in St Ann and text messages.
Robanske's teaching licence was suspended in the United States because of inappropriate sexual contact with a child.