The Trinidad and Tobago government is worried by the increasing number of elderly citizens being murdered or disappearing for ever and the perpetrators are often family members.
Fifty-two elderly people aged 60 years and over were murdered in Trinidad and Tobago since January 2018, claimed the T&T Police Service. Of the 32 cases this year, six people were arrested and charged, one of which was a family member of one of the victims.
In 2018, 20 murders were reported, seven of which were detected with ten people arrested and charged, one of whom was a family member. Since 2016, eight percent of the victims of serious crimes in T&T have been senior citizens.
Janelle Sebastian-Reyes, an officer at the Victim Witness and Support Unit, who spoke at a special session held on World Alzheimer’s Day, Sept. 21, said the data shows that the elderly have been victims of assault by beatings, threats and breach of protection orders, murders, rape and other sexual offences, burglaries and break-ins, fraud offences and larceny. In the past three years, 229 older people were reported missing and 53 of them have not yet been found.
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