Ryan Neal charged for schoolgirl rape; N.C.F.C. condemns

Ryan Neal

Police have charged twenty-seven-year-old security guard Ryan Neal, accused of having sexual intercourse with a fourteen-year-old female student at her high school in Belize City. The student told police that on the ninth of April, at around three-thirty in the afternoon, Neal called her to the third floor of the school building where he had unlawful sexual intercourse with her inside a classroom. Neal was read charges of grievous harm and unlawful sexual intercourse before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford. No plea was taken and Neal was denied bail and remanded until July twenty-third, when he returns to court. However, Neal is preparing to apply for bail at the Supreme Court. The incident has caught the attention of the National Committee for Families and Children which today issued a statement condemning the report. The attack infringes the child victim’s right to be free of sexual abuse and exploitation under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child. The Committee reminds that all must be involved in the protection of children and that children should not be robbed of the right to develop to their fullest potential by violent actions like this. The Committee concludes that the incident must be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted and the child given the care necessary to help alleviate any associated trauma.