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Training for cops on child sexual abuse cases

19 Jul 2021

BY Dinitha Rathnayake The Police are to conduct a special awareness programme over this weekend in collaboration with the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) for police personnel due to the increase in the reporting of sexual abuse cases, particularly those against children. Police Media Spokesman Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) Ajith Rohana said these programmes would focus on preventing child exploitation and sexual violence against children. The first programme would take place in Nuwara Eliya this weekend, according to SDIG Rohana, where it will especially focus on police officers attached to the Nuwara Eliya Division. This latest move comes in the wake of 41 suspects being arrested in connection with the sexual, including online, exploitation of a 15-year-old girl in Mount Lavinia. The girl was offered to third parties for sexual services through advertisements posted online over a period of three months for prices ranging from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 30,000. The Children and Women’s Bureau has so far arrested 41 suspects on the basis of data obtained from the victim’s mobile phone. Among the arrested are the girl’s mother, owners of certain online sites, Mihintale Pradeshiya Sabha Deputy Chairman Lalith Edirisinghe, a former Maldivian State Minister, a Buddhist monk, a Sub Inspector of Police, a Special Task Force officer, a Navy doctor, and several leading businessmen. Elsewhere, a 13-year-old girl from Nawalapitiya had been allegedly sexually exploited by 10 men and the Police have since arrested four of them, including the girl’s father. The Stop Child Cruelty Trust informed that over 140 incidents of rape, 42 cases of serious sexual abuse, and 54 cases of child abuse had been reported from various police divisions in the country in the first 15 days of 2020, whereas this number has since skyrocketed to date to 5,242 cases of child abuse and 1,642 cases of the sexual abuse of women.


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