PORT OF SPAIN, Apr. 19, CMC – Police here arrested Ian Alleyne, the host of a television show that broadcast the rape of a minor last October, in connection with the controversial broadcast, media reports here said.

Radio and television reporters broadcast Alleyne’s arrest at the CCN TV 6 station. He was accompanied by his lawyer Om Lalla, as he was taken into custody at Police Headquarters on St Vincent Street.

It was not immediately clear whether Alleyne was charged.

Last October, Alleyne, host of the Crimewatch programme, broadcast the assailants’ recording of a child’s gang rape, triggering a police investigation of the journalist and a search of the television station.

The programme was later suspended after complaints by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, the government agency that regulates broadcastings, and viewers’ outrage.

The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago condemned the “repeated broadcast of what purports to be a very serious criminal assault on a minor”. 

“While the programme in question highlights and advocates solutions to crime and victims’ rights, in this instance, the broadcasting of this video has further violated the child victim,” MATT said in a statement in late October.

Alleyne has claimed the broadcast was aimed at getting public involvement to solve the crime. and that he was being targetted by the police for other exposés on his programme.