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The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal filed by a Buddhist monk convicted of sexually abusing a novice monk, upholding his conviction and sentence of 10 years rigorous imprisonment for aggravated sexual abuse.
The appeal was dismissed by a bench of Justices Amal Ranaraja and Dr. Sumudu Premachandra. They ruled that the trial judge was entitled to rely on the child victim’s testimony, having established that it was credible and truthful.
The accused monk was convicted by the Polonnaruwa High Court on two counts of aggravated sexual abuse under Section 365B(2)(b) of the Penal Code.
The charges relate to incidents that allegedly occurred between 23 November 2014 and 23 January 2015. At that time, the victim was seven years old and was a resident of the same temple as the accused, a senior monk.
Following the trial, the High Court sentenced him to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 50,000 for each count, and in default of payment of the fine, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. It was ordered that these sentences be served concurrently. In addition, the accused was also ordered to pay compensation of Rs. 100,000 to the victim.
Subsequently, the accused filed this appeal before the Court of Appeal challenging his conviction and sentence.
The Court of Appeal, in its judgment, stated that the victim had given a detailed and consistent statement of the events and that the inconsistencies identified during cross-examination were not relevant to the main sexual abuse allegations.
Additional Solicitor General Shanil Kularatne appeared for the Attorney General.