Stepfather Pleads Guilty and Remanded for Physical Abuse of Minor

Tonight, a violent stepfather is spending his first night on remand at the Belize Central Prison after pleading guilty to physically abusing a three-year-old child earlier this week.  Footage of the repulsive incident sparked public outrage on Monday when thirty-three-year-old Devain Flores was seen getting off a motorcycle before kicking and hitting the little boy repeatedly.  The Belize City laborer, who stands accused of mistreating the infant, appeared unrepresented before Magistrate Baja Shoman.  The revolting episode prompted Commissioner of Police Chester Williams to show up to the lower courts this afternoon in his capacity as a prosecutor where Flores was brought up on two counts of cruelty to a child.  Following Flores’ arraignment, ComPol Williams spoke with the media and explained why the charges against the perpetrator were later upgraded.

 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“It’s a very important matter I must say, it involves a three-year-old who was being abused, obviously by a thirty-three-year-old, and I think that when we have situations of such, the police department, as well as any other organization that has to do with upholding the rights of children, we must do our best in making sure that those persons are brought to justice.  Over and over, we are seeing that our young people are being abused in various ways, shape or form and as a responsible organization we will always do our best in working in conjunction with other organizations such as UNICEF, Department of Youth Services, NCFC, et cetera.  So we have to make sure we do what we can to protect our children, so we must send a strong signal to abusers of children that we are not playing, we are serious about this.”

 

Reporter

“Explain the process of how this was upgraded from common assault to these more serious charges.”

 

Chester Williams

“Well after having viewed the video footage, myself, I believe that the charge of common assault was inadequate.  It was basically putting a slap on the wrist of the perpetrator and so I had directed the investigators to further work to gather more evidence and record more statements.  That was done yesterday and I must commend the officers from the Domestic Violence Unit for responding quickly to my request.  Having obtained the request from them, I communicated with the Director of Public Prosecutions and we both agreed that the charges should be upgraded from common assault to that of abusing a child, basically.”