Showing posts with label Child Sexual Abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Child Sexual Abuse. Show all posts

13 January 2011

Teacher Accused of Raping Students Transferred...To Another School!


There is something fundamentally flawed with a bureaucratic system that allows for a teacher that has been accused of raping primary school students to remain in the classroom pending a finalisation of the accusations. This is not a question on the presumption of innocence.

The alleged perpetrator of these sex crimes against children has the right to a presumption of innocence until such time as those charges are proven against him. However, common sense would demand that the individual be removed from the classroom and placed in a position where he has no interaction with children in the school environment or he is place on leave until the allegations are investigated and concluded.

Sadly, in South Tangerang, a male teacher, Y.P., was accused of having molested a number of primary school students at the Pondok Ranji 5 Primary School in Pondok Aren. He has since been transferred to Setu 3 Primary School which is also under the jurisdiction of the South Tangerang District Education Office.

There are a couple of problems with this. The most obvious being: why is this individual still in the classroom and still with access to children considering the serious nature of the allegations? And, what in the world is the South Tangerang District Education Office thinking when it states unequivocally where the teacher has been teaching immediately prior to the transfer and then goes on to say where that individual is now.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility here that in a country like Indonesia where vigilante justice goes hand-in-hand with more official forms of punishment that an angry mob could soon be descending on Y.P.'s new school.

I appreciate that there are procedures to be followed and the like because Y.P. is a civil servant, a government employee, but nevertheless it would make sense to remove the individual from the situation. But, the preferred option in this instance has been to transfer him to a different school, provide mandatory counselling and to put in place a more strict monitoring regime.

In the meantime, the South Tangerang District Education Office is encouraging the parents of all students who have been abused to make reports to the police.

11 January 2011

Foreign Sex Tourism to Bali..


I read this the other day and sort of pondered whether to write about it or not. I pondered because writing about how the system fails so enormously might encourage pedophiles to chance their hand in the wild frontiers of child sex tourism that are the poor provinces of Eastern Bali. The most impoverished of the provinces; Singaraja, Buleleng, and Karangasem, are those that are most at risk.

Sadly, according to the report, it is predominantly Australians that are taking advantage of Bali's children and sexually abusing them. The reported figures are the tip of the iceberg as a great many of the outrages perpetrated against these children are never reported nor, if they are reported, ever pursued to prosecution. Nevertheless, this is not exclusively Australian perpetrators as there are offenders from all parts of the globe, including Europe (Germany, France, The Netherlands, to name but a few) and the US.

The problem though is not exclusively one of poverty, although poverty is a significant factor, but rather of apathy and corruption combined with an inordinate amount of red tape from a cumbersome bureaucracy that is not pro-active in protecting and supporting children who have been abused.

There were thirteen foreign pedophiles convicted of child sex offences in the period between 2001 and 2008. This does not seem like a large amount considering that there were more than 200 reported incidents of child sex abuse.  A local non-governmental organisation, Committee Against Sexual Abuse, estimates that there are some 150 pedophiles operating on Bali. It does not help that Singaraja does not yet record data relating to pedophiles or child sex crimes.

I appreciate that these crimes can be difficult to investigate and prosecute because not all children or their families are willing to report sexual abuse or suspicions of sexual abuse. I also appreciate that some families unwittingly sell their children into the sex trade in the belief that the "real" intent of the trafficker is to provide an education and a job. Then there are others who perhaps do this knowingly. However, what I cannot understand is why police would not want to investigate pedophilia in a more pro-active way considering that it is a known problem in the areas of Eastern Bali?

Although, in the big scheme of things I am probably less surprised than I should be that one can place a "price" on the violation of a child. Maybe it is just a simple case of everything has its price, and the price to turn a blind eye to the sexual violation of children in impoverished places is undoubtedly not that much.

Is the answer as simple as education and community outreach where men, women, and children are taught that it is not OK to be sexually abused in exchange for food or payment of one's school fees. There is no problem if someone wants to provide you food or fees for school as a gift, but this does not mean that you owe them the innocence of your children to pay off some alleged debt.

It would appear that the modus operandi is now one of "out of sight, out of mind" as pedophiles go further and further away from main urban areas in search of their victims.

What I do not get at the moment, and perhaps this is a lack of research, is why Australia is not more pro-active in pursuing Australian pedophiles wherever they may be found. Australia has laws on its statute books that provide for jail terms of up to 17 years and fines of up to AUD 500,000 for those convicted of child sex offences. The law has been drafted as such that the crime does not have to occur in Australia. The law simply states that anyone who engages in a sexual act with a child under 16 or grooms a child under 16 for sex is guilty of a crime, even where the offence is committed overseas.

The Australian Federal Police website includes a section on Child Sex Tourism and has forms to complete for those who have suspicions about Australians who may have committed a child sex offence overseas.

I am not sure what the point of this post is. It is an issue that bothers me and it is one that I think needs more attention. Perhaps, it is as a father of a young son I cannot fathom such an atrocity happening to him. Perhaps, it is because as an educator I feel a responsibility to ensure that children are safe and know what is acceptable and what is not, after all, our children are our future. Maybe, it is just that getting it out there will get us thinking about it and being more vigilant in our own worlds.

21 October 2010

Pedophilia vs. Distribution of Porn...

This must surely be an anomaly, right? Prosecutors are seeking to have Ariel jailed for 16 years for his alleged involvement in distributing a couple of home made sex tapes, yet the same office of public prosecutors are seeking a mere 6 years for a pedophile Muslim cleric. Go figure.

Does this mean that the distribution of pornography is a far more serious offense than pedophilia? Or is it that because Sheikh Puji has a legitimate argument that underage marriage is permissible in Islam thereby in some way mitigating the seriousness of the breach as it exists under state law?

These are serious questions for Indonesia to answer. It is high time that the president took the high moral ground and involved himself in these sorts of matters and made unequivocal statements as to what it means to be Indonesian. He should also stand up and say "sorry, but the sexual abuse of children is wrong! There is no excuse for it, there is nothing to mitigate the actions of a perpetrator, and anyone committing these crimes will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law". Hopefully, the full extent of the law is a little more than 6 years.

I have posted on Pujiono Cahyo Widiyanto and his marriage to Lutfiana Ulfa. A simple search of the blog will reveal those posts. Here are the essential facts as I recall them: he is 45-years-old and she is 12-years-old (at the time of the marriage), he owns and operates a Muslim Boarding school and uses that to call himself a cleric, he is wealthy, Lutfiana's parents had financial dealings and debts with him, he argues that God's law trumps the laws of man, and in any event she has reached puberty so in a medical sense she is no longer a child.

Perhaps prosecutors could use Article 5(3) of Law No. 1 of 1951 to prosecute the Sheikh as well?

16 September 2010

Pregnant Nuns, Ice-Cream and Catholic Outrage...


Truth be told, I am not a really religious person. I do have my moments of Zen and other spirituality from time-to-time though. However, the fact that a pregnant nun advertising an ice cream product so outraged Catholics that they complained to the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) seems a little over-the-top at first look.

The ad is clearly satire, some might even say it is taking the piss out of the religious concept of the immaculate conception, but when it is all said and done it is best described as an ad of questionable taste (no pun intended considering it is for ice-cream).

The ad campaign was using a slogan "ice-cream is our religion". The ad itself, shows a heavily pregnant nun with the words "immaculately conceived". The beef that those that complained have is that the ad makes a mockery of Roman Catholic beliefs. Maybe it does, but I wonder if these same complainants are so similarly outraged by the excesses of Roman Catholic priests that rape and abuse little boys, and who have done so for centuries. These men parading as priests have ensured that the mockery begins from within the Roman Catholic church itself.

Nevertheless, the ASA decided that even the light-hearted use of such an image was likely to cause serious offense to some, and then banned the image. The advertising agency had argued that its use of religious imagery was legitimate. Unfortunately, the ASA did not buy into that argument. It is not the first time that Ad Agency Antonio Federici has come into conflict with Catholics and the ASA. An ad from last year suggesting a kiss between a nun and a priest was also banned. \

As I said, a nun and a priest getting down to it in a full-on lip lock is hardly offensive compared to some of the things the Catholic Church has been complicit in allowing to occur and then go unpunished for decades upon decades. It is time to take stock and seek out a little perspective. If you are Roman Catholic and you are offended, then that is your right. Express that displeasure through boycotting the product, writing letters to the editors of magazines and newspapers, get your priests to preach from the pulpit. But to seek to ban all expression that runs counter to your beliefs is no different from any other religious group that seeks to control freedom of thought and expression in order to achieve some kind of world domination plan. It is ultimately destined to fail.

When it is all said and done, if you truly believe in an all-powerful omniscient God, then s/he is likely to ensure on the coming judgment day that Antonio Federici and his cohorts get their comeuppance for their poor sense of humour. I am sure that one of the main lessons of religion was something about letting those that are free of sin cast the first stone. And, there was that other one about people who live in glass houses not throwing stones.

Final point, perhaps some of these complainants and those that get to rule on these complaints need to do a couple of Sunday Schools sessions and get back in touch with what Roman Catholicism says about the immaculate conception, it is enlightening; it is not about virgin births but rather it is about freedom from original sin (feel free to correct me if I am wrong).

Ho hum...

15 October 2009

Syekh Puji and the Office of the Attorney General...


The Office of the Attorney General (AGO) has stated that it intends to appeal against the preliminary decision handed down by the Ungaran District Court in the case of child sexual abuse against Pujiantocahyo Widianto or Syekh Puji as he is known by his followers.

The Ungaran District Court dismissed the indictment for being incomplete and vague. The rationale of the court was that the indictment failed to detail explicitly how and when the offenses were committed. Presumably, the prosecutors failed, according to the court, to get into the nitty gritty of detailing what type of sex was had, when the sexual intercourse occurred, and where. Any amended indictment that seeks to satisfy the court in this regard is certainly going to make for interesting reading.

Albeit, it seems that the trend to explicit detail in indictments regarding sexual activity has already been started by the AGO in the case against Antasari Azhar in the South Jakarta District Court. The indictment read out by the prosecutors in the Antasari case caused some controversy as it was the first time the sexual practices of a former public official were entered into the court records. The indictment detailed Antasari's need for some hand relief (also known as a happy ending or being masturbated) from someone else's wife. For which he paid USD 500.

Back to the Syekh. The AGO is going to appeal to the Central Java High Court seeking the court to overturn the ruling. If they are successful in their appeal, then the Central Java High Court is most likely to order the matter to proceed in the Ungaran District Court. The appeal is based on a cause of action that the court / judges erred in their application of the relevant laws. Simply, the indictment is not flawed but the legal reasoning of the judges is flawed in this case.

The dismissal of the indictment against the Syekh poses an interesting dilemma. The girl in this case is a girl at just 12-years of age when the Syekh married her. So, there is seemingly a prima facie case on which to proceed. The dismissal of the indictment, by default, says that there is no case on which to proceed. Therefore, the dilemma is whether or not this dismissal can be read as condoning and legalizing pedophilia in Indonesia?

It is clear under the marriage law that a child of 12 years of age cannot marry. It is also pretty clear that the parents of a 12-year-old would encounter some legal obstacles in condoning such a marriage. The Child Protection Law explicitly states that a child is a child until they reach the age of 18. So, to allow this decision to stand unchallenged sets a bad precedent. The AGO has an obligation to pursue this through higher courts.

Interestingly, it would seem that the argument that the practice of marriage according to the rules of Islam trumps any national laws that are in place that would seemingly prohibit such practices. There is some debate about whether Islam of the 21st Century still condones the marriage practices of the 7th Century as they relate to child brides. However, the Ungaran District Court decision has added a new dynamic to the framework of the argument.

It would seem though that, at least in the interim, the Syekh is free to go about his daily business as a handicraft exporter and husband to a child bride.

13 October 2009

Syekh Puji Goes To Trial (and gets acquitted)...


Syekh Puji went to trial in the Ungaran District Court charged with committing sexual abuse on a child. The sexual abuse charges stem from his marriage to an underage girl. I have written about this case elsewhere, and you can find those posts here.

In essence, the Syekh was facing charges relating to violations of Articles 81(2) and 82 of the Child Protection Law and Article 290 of the Indonesian Criminal Code. I also believe that there are charges relating to a violation of the Marriage Law. I have not seen the indictment or read the verdict dismissing the case.

However, the presiding judge in the trial, Hari Mulyanto, dismissed the prosecution case because, in his opinion, the indictment was incomplete, vague, and by default, flawed. Consequently, Mulyanto ordered that the Syekh was free to go and resume his life free of the charges laid. In that sense it is not really an acquittal, because in a technical sense the judge has issued a preliminary ruling stating that the case cannot go forward to trial because the indictment does not make the grade.

Prosecutors, apparently, intend to appeal the verdict. But, what is interesting was that the prosecution seemed to indicate that they will go away and improve the indictment. This suggests that the first time out the prosecutors did not bother to cross all the "t"s and dot all the "i"s.

Appeals in Indonesia generally require that there be new evidence available that was not available at the time of the trial or that there has been an error by the judge(s) in the application of the law. Unfortunately, prosecutors failing to do their jobs is not new evidence or an error in the application of the law.

There seems to be little doubt that the Syekh married an underage girl, and there seems little doubt that he consummated that marriage after her first period, what seems to be in doubt is the ability of the prosecutors to close the deal on this case.

24 June 2009

Genital Piercing of Children...


I wonder about this one. I am all for freedom of choice. If someone wants to get a genital piercing or two then that is a decision for them. However, this position presupposes that the person seeking to have their genitals pierced are of legal, age and can in fact consent to having the piercings done. Yet, I have some serious concerns about whether a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old have the capacity to make those decisions for themselves. In a legal sense, they clearly do not.

More to the point, what are two youngsters doing thinking about, and then getting, their genitals pierced. Even more to the point, what are two tattoo artists / piercers thinking when they decided to pierce the genitals of two young girls. This seems to have been opportunistic at best.

The two tattooists / piercers, Mark Andrew Ford and Gregory Alan Ford, 50 and 53-years-old respectively, told the two girls that before the piercings could be done properly the genitals of both would have to be stimulated. This stimulation required the sexual penetration of both the girls. These offenses occurred in 2001 and 2007.

Ultimately, both men pleaded guilty to the sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16.

The Judge, Wendy Wilmoth, described the case as unusual. It was unusual because the sexual penetration of the two young girls was at the girls' request. However, the judge points out that this does not change the fact that neither girl was of an age where she could have legally consented to such sexual activity. And, neither man inquired as to the age of the two when the piercings were requested.

This is the interesting part. The sexual penetration of a child is a very serious criminal offense and should attract a punishment that is commensurate with the seriousness of the crime. Yet, the judge imposed sentences of two years and six months on both men and then suspended those sentences for a full three years. This means that assuming neither man breaches the terms and conditions of their respective sentencing, then they will not see the inside of a jail cell.

I wonder how serious an offense it is to sexually penetrate a child under the age of 16 where the sentence is less than three years and can be wholly suspended?

If you want to know more about genital piercing, then a simple Google search will point you in the right direction (and provide you with some graphic examples of the practice). Or, if you are really interested in piercing then you might want to inquire into purchasing the "Piercing Bible". It is unlike any other bible I have seen! (I should add here that there is no deal in place with the publisher to promote this bible. Besides if the publisher saw my visitor stats then I am certain no promotional deal could be struck. My readers, you are loyal but few in number).