OPPOSITION Leader Andrew Holness has urged the police to use the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act to punish adults involved in inappropriate relationships with children.
Holness pointed out in his contribution to the 2015/16 budget debate in the House of Representatives that the previous Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration had amended the Act to make sexual grooming a crime.
"The police must use this law to arrest these predators. We cannot, as a society, continue to allow our children to be abused and murdered," he said.
The opposition leader's comments came in the wake of a number of recent incidents reported in the media of girls below the age of consent (16) being made pregnant by adult men.
Child grooming is the act of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, to lower the child's inhibitions for sexual abuse. It is also a critical element in the trafficking of children, illicit businesses such as child prostitution, or the production of child pornography, and is characteristic of paedophilia.
Holness made the comment as he lashed the government for failing to bring under control the current wave of murders.
Holness said that the level of murders show that Jamaica has a crisis on its hands.
"We wake up each day to horror stories of gruesome murders," he said pointing to the report that that four persons, including an eight-year-old child, were killed last Wednesday night in St James by gunmen.
"The elderly are not being spared; pregnant women are not being spared; our children are not being spared," he told the House.
"Our children, the future of the nation, are being murdered in numbers no civilised society can tolerate. We have a crisis on our hands," he stated.
Holness called on the government to speed up the implementation of an islandwide registration and identification system (IRIS) to assist the police in establishing identity, generally, and reduce instances where criminals mislead the police about their identity.
"Law enforcement must be enabled to quickly identify individuals suspected of criminal activities," he said.
He also urged the immediate tabling of the DNA Bill, and suggested that minor offences be made ticketable, in order not to clog up the courts.