Six-year-old murder victim Keyana Cumberbatch was struck unconscious, then raped, an autopsy has shown.
The autopsy, conducted today at the Forensic Sciences Centre, revealed that the girl died of blunt force trauma after being struck a blow to the head.
Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov gave details of what he found during the forensic examination but could not give an approximate time of death.
The search for six-year-old Keyana Cumberbatch ended in despair around 3 pm Thursday, when police found the child dead in her apartment at Building 4, Maloney Gardens, D’Abadie, in a barrel, beneath pieces of clothing.
Before the autopsy results were announced, former Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development, Verna St Rose Greaves, promised to stage a one-woman protest outside Parliament to decry Government's delay in bringing the Children Protection Act into force. She said she "did not know what would happen" if she was allowed into the Parliament.
Around 1:40 pm today, St Rose Greaves shouted from Parliament public gallery, "Our children are dying! Do something!"
The Children Authority has issued a statement offering condolences to the victim's family, and encouraging the public to report any suspected cases of child abuse and neglect.
Keyana's body was found almost a week to the day after the body of one-year-old Jacob Munroe was found in a cesspit near his Maracas, St Joseph home. An autopsy revealed he had been beaten and smothered to death.
Keyana and Jacob were two of four children were killed in Trinidad and Tobago this year, according to the Bullet Points database.
Four-year-old Musa Subhan was a member of the Akbar Trace family slaughtered in Fyzabad by a relative in July.
In September, an autopsy performed on two-year-old Kimora Roopnarinerevealed that Kimora died as a result of blunt force trauma to the chest, which broke two of her ribs. She died at the Chaguanas Health Facility.