Minister lauds parents, school for uncovering molestation case in Miri
KUCHING: The parents of children, said to be victims of an alleged sexual predator in Miri are lauded on their courage and cooperation in stepping forward to uncover such dastardly act happening at the place where this type of thing should never have occurred.
Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah also commends the school community for their prompt action to bring the case up to police.
“I feel just as angry as these parents – and they have every right to feel angry because the trust that they place upon the teacher has been broken; the children suffer in many ways – physically, emotionally and psychologically,” she said in a statement yesterday.
In a report on Friday, CID Sarawak chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the parents of 12 pupils from a primary school in Miri jointly lodged police report against a teacher, who was arrested on Tuesday in suspicion that he had been molesting a Primary 2 girl.
In this regard, Fatimah commended the mother of the girl, who first reported the case to the headmaster on April 3.
“I want to give merit to the headmaster for not keeping the matter ‘hush hush’; instead, he advised the girl’s mother to report it to the police, to put a stop to the molestation once and for all, and also to protect the other children.
“Congratulations to the CID section headed by Datuk Dev Kumar for the irspeedy action. This gives confident to the public, especially parents, that the system and justice will prevail,” she added.
Most importantly, Fatimah pointed out that her ministry and the parents would demand that justice be done for the children.
“The children look up and trust us as adults to protect them from any harm and danger. The heavy punishment is already in place.
“Awareness programmes should and will be carried out at school by our ministry together with other organisations such as Sarawak Development Council (MPS) and Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS).
“We want to educate the community – especially the children – on what is safe touch and what is not, what to do when one is facing such a situation, the relevant laws like Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and other issues that matter. We welcome schools to take these initiatives as well.”
On the Miri case, it is learnt that the 13 victims are aged between eight and 11 ( Primary 2 to Primary 5).
According to Dev, these schoolchildren said they had been molested by the teacher for a couple of years, and that he had video-recorded parts of their bodies using his mobile phone, which had been confiscated for forensic analysis. The teacher is currently on remand till May 1.