0 Police lack clues in apparent case of sexual abuse

Police said on Friday they had questioned the parents of the 11-year-old girl, who is currently in a critical condition after apparently suffering repeated sexual assault, but had yet to find sufficient evidence to investigate the case. Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that an officer from East Jakarta Police’s Women and Children Unit had visited the parents of the girl on Thursday in Persahabatan Hospital in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, where the girl is currently in a coma. 

“However, they could not provide us with enough information and could not confirm whether or not the girl had been a victim of sexual assault nor determine who the perpetrator might be. The mother said her daughter had never complained of being sexually molested by anyone,” he told a press conference. Rikwanto said therefore, that the police could only wait for the girl to regain consciousness to question her directly. 

Rikwanto said the girl’s mother told officers that the girl first complained of a pain in her armpit around three months ago and was brought to a community health center where she was diagnosed with a lymph node problem. The girl, however, kept complaining of other pains after the visit and different doctors diagnosed her with other illnesses, such as typhoid fever and a stomach ulcer, before she collapsed on Dec. 29. 

Priyanti Soepandi, the director of Persahabatan Hospital, said in a conference with the National Commission for Child Protection that doctors discovered severe injuries to the girl’s vagina and rectum when they were about to give her medicine for her seizures. Doctors were still deciding whether the injuries had triggered the seizures. The girl’s mother said that her daughter had experienced vaginal bleeding for the past two months but refused to disclose what had happened. She also said that her daughter’s classmates told her a teacher at their school in Pulo Gebang, often acted inappropriately toward students, including her daughter. — JP/aml

source : the jakarta post