CASTRIES (CMC):

The mother of a 14-year-old boy allegedly buggered by a policeman is suing the state.

Twenty-nine-year-old police officer Barry Hunte was last week arrested and charged for buggery and indecent assault of the boy. He is currently locked up at the Bordelais Correctional Facility after being unable to meet his EC$20,000 (US$7,500) bail.

Attorney-at-law Martinus François on Friday filed a claim for EC$1 million in damages acting on behalf of the boy's mother.

The grounds for the suit are that on February 29, her son, who had run away from home, was in the care, custody and protection of the police officer at a district police station in the capital when Hunte ordered the boy into his vehicle on the pretext that he was taking him for counselling.

Proceeded sex

"Instead, Barry Hunte took the intended claimant's son to his home where he proceeded to have anal and oral sex with him at gunpoint," court documents said.

The court papers stated that the attorney general and the police commissioner, the intended defendants, were negligent in that they exposed the youth to the risk of sexual abuse as they were aware of the numerous complaints against the police officer and continued to employ him in the care and custody of children.

The documents further stated the authorities failed to take adequate protection, provide a safe environment, and consider adequately or at all whether the boy would be safe with the officer, adding that the youth suffered "severe injuries to his anus and rectum area as well as severe psychiatric treatment in the foreseeable future".

"As a result, he is unable to attend school and is likely to need psychiatric treatment in the foreseeable future."

Noting that the matters complained of were oppressive, arbitrary, and unconstitutional, the intended claimant is claiming compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages, interest and costs.