Six-year-old allegedly abused at int’l school
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Tue, April 15 2014, 9:20 AM
An alleged sexual abuse case was revealed on Monday in an international school in South Jakarta involving the alleged gang rape of a six-year-old student by cleaning service staff.
The victim was reportedly subjected to rape by several members of the school’s outsourced cleaning staff on two separate occasions in the period Feb. 20 to March 20, in one of the toilets at the school.
The case was uncovered after the victim’s mother uncovered bruises on the child’s stomach and anus on March 20. The mother said the child had exhibited abnormal behavior around Feb. 20 to 23.
“When my son told me of the incidents, I struggled to understand at first, but it gradually became clear he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of several adults at the school,” the mother said in a press conference at the Sari Kuring restaurant in Central Jakarta.
The mother said she took the child to several medical centers, including Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital and Pondok Indah Hospital in South Jakarta, before filing a police report with the Jakarta Police on March 24.
The results of the child’s examination at Pondok Indah Hospital confirmed the child’s injuries were consistent with sexual abuse and also indicated the child had contracted herpes.
Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said the police had confirmed three school cleaning staff members as suspects, two males and one female.
They were arrested on April 3, with the two male suspects undergoing a physical examination to determine their roles in the case.
“The two male detainees’ genitals tested positive for the kind of bacteria found in the victim’s anus,” Rikwanto said on Monday.
Rikwanto added that the two male suspects, Agun Iskandar and Virgiawan, were detained at Jakarta Police headquarters, while the third suspect, Afriska, was released due to a lack of evidence.
Lawyer Andi speculated that there were more than three perpetrators in the case as none of the current suspects had herpes.
“I don’t believe there were only three people involved in this case, because the police have not caught anyone who carries the disease,” Andi said.
Police have also examined two more outsourced employees of the cleaning service company who allegedly filled in for Agun and Virgiawan due to their unexplained absences in the middle of March, but were released. The two employees will meet with the victim and his mother at the Jakarta Police’s Women and Children’s’ Unit on Tuesday to confirm their roles in the case.
Andi said that by not cross-checking the outsourced employees, the school had invited a security risk.
While he said that the school had cooperated with the police investigation by handing over the employee registry, he urged the school to be more open about the incident and acknowledge it for the sake of the school’s reputation and the safety of the students.
“The closest thing to a response from [the school] was that it sent a letter to the parents of all students from kindergarten to high school saying that more safety precautions would be taken, however they did not directly mention the case,” he said.
The victim’s mother and Andi had reported the case to the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) and the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) on March 22.
The name of the school has been withheld to protect the identity of the victim. (dyl)
