CDA rescues 14 year old boy from Shoemaker Gully

The Child Development Agency (CDA) has rescued the 14 year old boy from Clarendon who was living among homosexuals in one of the gullies in the Corporate Area.
   
It was reported that the child was being groomed by the men.
   
The story was brought to light by the Star newspaper two weeks ago during an interview with Detective Inspector Claudette Hepburn from the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).
   
During that interview, Inspector Hepburn revealed that the police went to the Shoemaker Gully on Half Way Tree Road in St. Andrew where the child was, but did not retrieve him.
   
Speaking on TVJ's Smile Jamaica on Monday morning, Rosalee Gage Grey, CEO of the CDA, provided an update on the case as she outlined the strategies that have to be used by the agency's officers to get children out of difficult situations.

"Our officers had to go there, engage those young men, and in engaging them, they sent out the boy and so we were able to pick him up. So we have to use different strategies to be able to get to children who need our help," she asserted.

In a subsequent interview with the CDA, Rochelle Dixon, Manager of Public Relations and Communications, told RJR News that the boy was rescued last Friday by CDA officers after they learnt of the situation via a Gleaner editorial the day before.
   
The matter was never reported to the CDA.
   
Ms. Dixon said the men who are living in the gully initially denied that the boy was there, but the CDA officers eventually gained their trust and were able to speak with him.

"Now the first thing that our officers did was to engage this child to find out what kind of frame of mind he was in. So he eventually agreed to leave with the investigators and we remanded him at a place of safety," she said.

The boy's father was subsequently informed of his location. 

In the meantime, Ms Dixon said based on the interview with the 14 year old boy, it was determined that he was in need of a psychological assessment and counselling.

After the assessment, it will be determined whether to keep the boy in State care permanently or to return him to family members.