Sexual abuse among children as young as two years old has increased due to the COVID-19 lockdown, noted a Clarendon medical practitioner, who labelled some of the cases as “very vicious”.

“Because of COVID-19, the children are at home longer with the perpetrator,” he charged, noting that the hospital has been working with the police to investigate the cases.

Edwards’ concerns followed local and international reports about an increase in child abuse as well as the number of children who have gone missing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May, Osbourne Bailey, head of the Ministry of Justice’s Victim Services Division, noted that the number of sex crimes against children was rivalling those committed against adults in that month.

It is somebody in the home, somebody related to the child,” Bailey stated then, sparking backlash from the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), which claimed that the numbers did not reflect in its statistics.