It was an alarming increase, as pointed out in the data released through the office of the Director of the Public Prosecutions in relation to serious sexual offences only.

Imagine for the month of April, within a 30-day period, 29 people charged with a total of 57 separate incidents resulting in 26 victims of such acts.

Do we need to introduce harsher penalties, aren’t our laws deterrent enough, or are the criminals testing our law enforcers?

Whatever answer we give, the fact remains that the numbers are increasing and up until when will our society suffer in silence.

It’s sad that such issues are now only becoming presentation topics for workshops, seminars and powerful speeches for some to stunt the media but nothing concrete is coming out from those in authority to challenge such criminal acts.

I believe we need to seriously re-look at our penalties.