Clifton Boys' Home
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Reverend Hartley Perrin, Chairman of the Clifton Boys' Home
Three former employees, including the manager of the Clifton Boys' Home in Westmoreland, have been charged following investigations triggered by reports earlier this year of the physical abuse of wards at the facility.
The three were charged on Thursday.
Irene McDonald, 80, who was the manager, has been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and unlawful wounding.
Her son, 58-year-old William McDonald, who was the assistant manager, and her granddaughter 35-year-old Rasheda McDonald, who was employed as the housekeeper, are charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The police allege that the three physically abused eight boys aged 10 to 17 during the period from March 2016 to March 2021.
They say in one instance, a metal chair was used to hit a 17-year-old boy.
Reverend Hartley Perrin, Chairman of the Clifton Boys' Home, told Radio Jamaica News he is "hurt" by the events and charges that have unfolded.
"In my interactions with the boys and with the home, I've never really heard anything untoward, and when they worship and other such [activities], I've never seen anything that would indicate to me that something was going amiss," he revealed.
"It's just so unfortunate because if you were to think about the superintendent who has been here for so many years, so many decades of service... I would have preferred for her to be in a better light in the media and elsewhere," Mr. Perrin lamented.
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