The St. Catherine police are searching for the man who fathered the child of a 15-year-old who gave birth at the Spanish Town Hospital on New Year's Day.

The girl's case became public when she was showered with gifts, in the traditional custom, given to the mother who had the first child at the start of a new year.

Sergeant Troy Anderson of the Constabulary Communication Network told The Gleaner yesterday that a detective from the St. Catherine North Division has been assigned to the case and investigations are ongoing.

Working feverishly

"The police are working feverishly to find this person," emphasised Sergeant Anderson.

Last week while the mother was still hospitalised, an officer from the Spanish Town division of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) visited her. However, a formal report had not yet been filed. The young mother was complaining of pains so a statement was not collected then by the officer.

Meanwhile, according to Inspector Butress Foster-Gordon, of CISOCA in Kingston, several underage mothers have been giving the police incorrect addresses to assist their partners in evading the law.

"So, if we don't go to the hospital and grip that case the accused go free," the inspector explained.

- Shelly-Ann Thompson