Minister denies cover-up in teacher assault case, criticizes politicizing of issue

Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams has denied any attempted cover-up by the Government in the case of a teacher accused of indecently assaulting an 11-year-old boy, and has chastised two local personalities for politicising the issue by making such a claim.

He described as irresponsible a video of the two making several allegations.

The comments referred to 39-year-old teacher David Seon Griffith, of St Leonard’s Avenue, Westbury Road, St Michael who was remanded to prison when he appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday, charged with indecently assaulting an 11-year-old boy on July 22, 2023.

“I had the misfortune of seeing a video circulating on WhatsApp where two well-known personalities, for lack of a better word, were having their full say on that and accusing the Government of hushing it up, trying to influence it, all sorts of things they were accusing the Government of,” Abrahams told the media on Monday on the sidelines of a four-day sex offenders workshop hosted by the Probation Department at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.

“They even say that they don’t feel safe with their children in school, and it was a very emotive video where a lot of facts were assumed and a lot of statements went out as fact.”

Abrahams said the police and law courts were responsible for dealing with such cases and it was ridiculous to bring politics into the matter “with some very wild and distasteful accusations”.

He pointed out that far from anything being hidden, following the child’s allegations and police investigation, the teacher was charged, went before the court, was denied bail and will reappear in court next month, as was reported in the media.

“I cannot believe that an investigation having been done and someone being arrested and charged and facing the courts that some irresponsible people can be accusing the Government in this circumstance of trying to hush up something. It was in court, it was carried by every single agency represented by one of you all here, it was carried in those agencies,” the minister told reporters.

Suggesting that sexual offence was perhaps the most disturbing offence possible, Abrahams said it had some of the widest ramifications, affecting the victims, their families, communities, as well as the perpetrators and their families.

“A lot of people involved in it have children on both sides of it. They may have brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. Let the courts do their job,” he said.

“People can comment on it, but stop flinging around allegations as if they are facts, and allow justice to take its course. It is irresponsible behaviour to accuse the Government of everything.

“I understand that the Government won 30-0. I understand that people feel that they need to create an opposition. I understand that the press holds the Government’s feet to the fire; I understand. But equally, it is not every single thing that happens in Barbados that is the fault of the Government,” Abrahams added.