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A teacher in St Elizabeth is currently facing six counts of having sexual intercourse with students under the age of 16, at the school where he was employed.

The teacher, Lionel Tracey, was arrested on November 20, initially on three charges, and has been in custody since then.

However, after appearing in the Santa Cruz Court in St Elizabeth on Monday, December 9, Tracey was slapped with three additional charges.

He has been further remanded until January 27, 2020.

Samuel Morgan, superintendent of police for St Elizabeth, told THE CENTRAL STAR that a report was made about the issue and the police carried out the necessary investigations, leading to the charges.

Trust of adults

"It is an incident that I abhor. When children are placed in the trust of adults and there are allegations like these that are very grave, the police take zero tolerance in these matters," he said. "We investigate them and wherever the chips fall, they lie, and wherever our investigation leads us, we do that."

Morgan says he cannot recall a similar teacher-student case in the parish in recent times.

"We have had other reports of sexual offences ... not necessarily students, but whatever the situation is. Equally, the persons who are so named in the matter, we investigate and we arrest and place them before the court," he said.

Morgan said that he was unsure as to how the students are dealing with the trauma.

"I'm not so trained to say that. I guess the guidance counsellor at the school will be able to say that," he said.