WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NUMBER of girls who used to run away from the State-run Granville Place of Safety in Trelawny has lessened with the increase of police patrols in the area. "The problem is not as bad as it used to be although one or two have escaped since then," said Inspector Dorothy War-mington of the Falmouth Police Station. The place of safety, which houses 87 girls who for one reason or another have been placed in the government's protective custody, became the subject of a sex scandal late last year when four men tried to kidnap two girls there.
The attempt, which was foiled by the police, resulted in the arrest of the four men and the exposure of several complaints about the management of the home. The residents said that the home was a romping ground for rapists and perverts who preyed on the girls.
"Girls are being lured and sold to other men for as much as $5,000 per girl. The girls end up as sex objects and go-go girls across the island," one man informed The Gleaner at the time.
Several other residents, who, out of fear for the arrested men's cronies, spoke under condition of anonymity supported the man's story.
Inspector Warmington said she had no proof to substantiate the rumours. However, she told The Gleaner at the time that she received daily reports about girls jumping over the fence and running off with men.
In an attempt to address the problem, Issac Smith, the Superintendent of the home, asked his administrative superiors at the Ministry of Health for some razor sharp wire to make it more difficult for the girls to jump over. However, his request has yet to be granted.
When The Gleaner contacted him this week he was not in a position to say when and if the wire would be coming.
Efforts to reach Smith's boss, Winston Bowen, the director of the Children's Services Division in the Ministry of Health, for a comment proved futile.
In the meantime the case against the four men, Oral Blair, Barrington Whyte, Kevin Beckles and Shanna Williams, is scheduled to be mentioned in court early next month.
