Sexual abuse case:

Teacher sentenced to 17 years’ RI

Kapila SOMARATNE, Panadura Group Correspondent

Panadura Provincial High Court Judge Malani Gunaratne sentenced a government school teacher cum sports instructor to 17 years' rigorous imprisonment and in addition to a fine of Rs 20,000.

The accused was found guilty of abducting a 16-year-old female student of a school in Panadura, taking her to a rest room in Kataragama and sexually abusing her for two days in November 1998.

The judge also ordered the accused to pay Rs 200,000 to the complainant girl and sentenced the accused to two years' simple imprisonment in default of the compensation and the fine.

It took 14 years to conclude the trial due to objections by the accused. The accused is a teacher cum sports instructor in a school in the Gampaha district.

He was indicted by the Attorney General with abducting the girl on November 20, 1998 and taking her to a rest room in Kataragama and sexually abusing her for two days.

The accused was a kabadi sports instructor in the Kalutara Educational Zone in 1998. He was training girls in the area. He had taken this girl for a kabadi contest in Kalutara.

The case against the accused had been proved beyond reasonable doubt, the judge said sentencing the accused to jail.

The accused after threatening the girl, had taken her to a rest room and kept her there for two days and seduced her, the girl's' parents complained to Panadura Police .

Attorney-at-law Sumedha P Perera praying for mitigation of the sentence said the accused is a government school teacher cum sports instructor who had received training in sports in foreign countries and was a father of two elderly children.

He appealed to court to consider to grant a lenient punishment.

The judge said when the accused committed this offence on the girl, he should have been aware that he was a father of two and thought about his future.