Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter, Dr Ho­race Chang, says the re­cent acts of vi­o­lence com­mit­ted against women and girls will re­main as a stain on Ja­maica’s na­tion­al char­ac­ter even as he promised that such acts will not be tol­er­at­ed and will be met with the full force of the law.

Chang, who is al­so the Deputy Prime Min­is­ter, said in a state­ment that the vi­o­lent in­ci­dents are deeply trou­bling and that they are not on­ly crim­i­nal vi­o­la­tions but moral ones, adding that they are of­fences against Ja­maica’s “shared val­ues of de­cen­cy, jus­tice and hu­man dig­ni­ty”.

He said that the in­ci­dents have al­so caused na­tion­al out­rage, in­flict­ed deep pain on fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties and have shak­en the moral con­science of so­ci­ety.