East End woman admits child cruelty

(CNS): Lurline Viola Smith Henry (59) will be sentenced later this month after admitting allegations of child cruelty when she appeared in court Friday. The woman is accused of enslaving a 12-year-old Jamaican boy after she convinced his family to let her bring the child to the Cayman Islands, where she could send him to school and give him a better life. Instead, the boy was abused, locked in her East End home and treated as a slave. He was never enrolled in school, and after several months he ran away and reported what had happened to him to the authorities, which triggered an investigation.

The woman’s own adult son, who was also arrested at the time, was discharged by the court last year after the crown was unable to prove he had any knowledge of what his mother was doing.