THURSDAY, DECMBER 2: A “perfect storm” of social, psychological and economic issues has led to the wave of violent crime rocking Bermuda, according to a poverty campaigner.

Sheelagh Cooper, from the Coalition for the Protection of Children, told MPs today: “Many Bermudians are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and desperation. For too long, we have ignored the great Bermudian dichotomy of the haves and have-nots and we are now paying the price for our ignorance and laissez-faire policies with the lives of young Bermudians.”

She told the joint select committee on violent crime and gun violence that Bermuda’s “darkest secret” was that poverty had become a problem of epidemic proportions.

“More than 50 percent of black female headed households with children lived at or below the poverty line when the 2000 census was taken. Those numbers have increased substantially over the last ten years.”

Martha Dismont, executive director of the Family Centre, told the bipartisan committee that unaddressed family-based trauma was at the root of the Island’s current woes.

She said emotional trauma, neglect and abuse affecting hundreds of families needed to be tackled.

For much more on this see tomorrow’s edition of The Royal Gazette