By ARTESIA DAVIS, NG Senior Reporter, artesia@nasguard.com

The Police Force won't start its own investigation into reports that a 12th-grader had sex with an underage girl on a private school campus, according to a senior policeman.

School surveillance cameras reportedly recorded a ninth-grade girl performing a sex-act on the 17-year-old prefect at an after-school event that was held last month. As punishment, the boy, who is the son of an prominent official, was suspended from school and removed as a prefect. He was also stripped of his presidency of a school club. It is not known how, or if, the girl was disciplined.

The school's name and other specific details have been withheld to protect the identities of the minors.

Up to yesterday, police said neither the school nor the girl's parents had reported the incident to them as required by the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act. The penalty for failing to report the suspected abuse of a minor is a $5,000 fine or two years in prison, or both.

The girl, who is under 16, could not legally consent to the act. And the boy could have faced a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse, if the matter had been reported. The maximum penalty for that offense is six months in prison, if the offender is under 18.

But according to Raymond Gibson, the acting assistant commissioner of police, no action will be taken since a complaint was not filed.

He told The Guardian yesterday, "We deal with official reports. We don't start investigations based on hearsay or reports in the media."