The Office of The Children’s Advocate (OCA) is advising the public to discontinue the dissemination of the photograph of Ms. Karen Rainford, the woman who was beheaded in Mountain View, St. Andrew over the weekend. The OCA has received reports that photographs of Ms. Rainford’s severed head are being circulated on social media and via email. The Office has also received information that these photographs are being shown to Ms. Rainford’s young children in the community.
Children’s Advocate, Mrs. Diahann Gordon Harrison, has urged adults and members of the community to be more mindful of the children. “The circulation of these photos only serve to further traumatize these children. They are already at a delicate emotional stage, and for persons to have such disregard for their feelings and by extension the family of Ms. Rainford is quite unacceptable. Let us as a nation allow Ms. Rainford to have dignity even while in death, and let us help her children, despite the emotional turmoil they now face, to be able to remember their mother as she was before she died,” Mrs. Gordon Harrison noted.
The Children’s Advocate and a team from the OCA will be visiting the Mountain View Primary school to host a counseling session with students who have been traumatized by the weekend’s event in the community. Member of Parliament for the area Mr. Andre Hylton who has been keeping a strong presence in the area, is encouraged by the OCA’s intervention as he has consistently expressed his concern for the well being of the children in the community.
