One of the themes in the
stories of Washington sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, shoe bomber Richard Reid and now suspected London bomber Jermain Lindsay, is the effect of boys torn away from their fathers. Today, The Sunday Gleaner looks closely at the issue in the NEWS section.
Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
IT'S FRIDAY, nearly 11:00 a.m. at the Corporate Area Family Court on Duke Street, Kingston.
A young woman, just 23 years old, clutches her 18-month-old son as she struggles to wipe her tears.
With a snap, she opens a diary, leafs through it and begins dialling numbers on a cellular telephone.
Eventually, it becomes clear that she is not able to find her ex-boyfriend.
Instead, she finds his mother.
"Where is your son?" asks the woman, who will be called RM for this article. "We have a court date today (for counselling it turns out) and him no show up." Anger and distress in her voice, she continues talking.
A5 picks up
RM appears not to notice other persons waiting in the lobby to see social workers, probation officers, counsellors or to rest their feet as they wait in a long line, comprising persons with cases to be heard in the court rooms on the building's third floor.
"How you mean, why mi ah carry him go family court? 'Cause him not minding him pickney ... Him still nah send nothing," RM continues.
There is a pause. Furious Talking. End.
Telephone conversation over, RM becomes aware of the others in the lobby, including the Sunday Gleaner reporter. She is embarrassed.
"I don't want to talk about this right here with these people staring at me," she says to The Sunday Gleaner with a sigh.
But a short time later, she changes her mind.
"We were to come for counselling. I was saying for the baby's sake, I wanted to be rational, saying let's try to be parents," she relates.
According to Beryl Marshall, court administrator, counselling is usually recommended to clients as a means of discussing problems, informing persons about available avenues, deciding what is in the best interests of the parties and to see whether some issues can be settled outside of court. But sometimes, counselling does not work.
In RM's case, it seemed that her boyfriend, who had been with her for four years before the break up a few months ago, wanted none of this.
"I decided (to do this) a month ago when he wasn't contacting us ... When I told him, he was hysterical. He used a lot of derogatory terms, cursing badwords, blame. Now, I have been trying to reach him," says RM, who is unemployed.
She later reveals that the end of her romantic relationship also ended a business partnership, which involved making and selling crafts and doing printing.
The money is especially necessary because RM is again pregnant-another memento from the broken relationship.
"To top it all off..When I found out, I called him to let him know and he has shown no interest."
The sentence trails off. RM turns away, grabs a rag and dabs at her eyes as she tries to calm the now fussy baby and regain composure.
It is difficult.
The clock continues ticking.
RM's cellular telephone does not ring and her child's father does not walk through the door.
For RM, this means not only renewed heartbreak but a need to gather strength. After all, she may very well have to come to the Family court again.
In an interview with the Sunday Gleaner on Friday, Ms. Marshall pointed out that majority of the cases coming before the Kingston and St. Andrew Family Court deal with matters of affiliation, which refers to cases where partners who are not married to each other seek child support for children from that relationship.
Court statistics showed that the number of matters coming to court relating to affiliation dipped between 2002 and 2003, moving from 1929 to 1407 before rising again in 2004 to 1,577. More than 1400 were settled in 2004.
Persons also seek maintenance, which refers to where persons who are married seek support from partners for themselves or their children. There were 568 maintenance cases in 2002, 499 in 2003 and 475 in 2004. Nearly 425 were settled in 2004.
Other matters looked at by the Family Court in 2004 include 29 petty sessions, 516 custody cases and 68 cases of adoption.
