A MOTHER’S ANGUISH: Grieving mom Pauline Lumfai at the funeral service 

(Photo Dave Persad, NEWSDAY)

NEWSDAY -- PAULINE LUMFAI screamed out in anguish, “the nasty boys will pay.”

Her cries for justice echoed throughout the funeral service yesterday at the family’s home at Orange Valley just 300 feet from the canefield where the body of her six year-old son, Sean Luke, a second year pupil was found buggered and beaten on Wednesday morning.

In police custody yesterday being interrogated by Homicide detectives about the crime committed last Sunday afternoon were three boys - a 14 year-old of Belmont, and a 16 and 17 year-old of Orange Valley. Police are searching for two others, including a nine-year-old boy.

Detectives are expected to consult with the Director of Public Prosecutions Geoffrey Henderson today on whether charges will be laid against the youths. Throughout the nation yesterday, e-mails and text messages circulated calling for citizens to wear black clothing in protest at the killing and sexual assault of the toddler.

The funeral saw a turnout of almost 300 mourners, who packed the boy’s home at Henry Street, and lined the roadway. Among the mourners was a representative of the U.S. Embassy, Councillors of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation and pathologist Dr Eastlyn McDonald Burris who conducted the autopsy on the six-year-old. Dr Burris reportedly told relatives it was one of the most heinous cases she had seen, after finding that a cane stalk was plunged into the toddler’s body causing his internal organs to rupture.

At the funeral service yesterday, Lumfai at first sat behind relatives for the first part of the service, weeping quietly with Sean’s father, Daniel Luke at her side. At one point, Sean’s father looked to Sean’s mother and sobbed, “that is our baby, that is our baby there.”

But when close relatives were asked to perform the Hindu rituals on the body and Lumfai sat next to the casket, her emotions overcame her. Her anguished cries rang out as pupils of the Waterloo Hindu School, where Sean attended, placed flowers on top of his casket, which was decorated with balloons emblazoned “I Love You” and a teddy bear.

Officiating pundit Dave Rampersad asked the schoolchildren to say a prayer for their deceased schoolmate for his soul to find its way to heaven. Pundit Rampersad, who is also a primary school teacher, in delivering the sermon said the perpetrators who committed Sean’s heinous killing will feel the wrath of God on judgment day.

Rampersad told mourners, “All over this nation people are crying and grieving the loss of this child. And they are asking, ‘Is God asleep? Doesn’t he care?’ But let me say to those criminals who want to inflict pain and suffering on the innocent lives in this manner, ‘today for me, tomorrow for you’.

Rampersad said the demise and death of little Sean was a wake up call to the political and other leaders to “take up the mantle” and ensure the lives of children are kept under safe guard. The pundit also called on parents to teach their children about God. “Children are taking lives of innocent children like Sean Luke”, Pundit Rampersad said. “Those criminals came from homes, but where are their parents in this? What are the children looking at on TV and on the internet? What are in their school bags?”

Secretary General of Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Sat Maharaj, said the principal, teachers and children of the school where Sean attended were deeply shocked and traumatised over “a crime so heinous that even the Gods have shed tears”. Deputy Mayor of the Chaguanas Regional Corporation Orlando Nagessar implored mourners not to forget the painful fate that Sean Luke suffered in death.

According to Nagessar, “Trinidad is a seven-day wonder. By next week we will forget this and wait in anxiety on what will be next or who will be next. My advice to you is to be your brother’s keeper”. The body was interred at the Waterloo Public Cemetery. 

Friday, March 31. 2006

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