MALAYSIA
New Straits Times
BY SUZANNA PILLAY – 14 AUGUST 2016
EARLIER this month, a 50-year-old English teacher at a primary school in Jerteh, Terrenganu, was detained for allegedly molesting three children at the school’s computer lab.
Serial child abuser Richard Huckle, 30, a British photographer suspected of abusing up to 200 children aged between 6 and 12 months during his stay in Malaysia from 2006 to 2014, had volunteered as an English teacher and at a church while insidiously targeting poor and marginalised communities.
Social activist Syed Azmi Al Habshi, who actively champions the prevention of child sexual abuse on social media, shared stories from Facebook followers of how students were sexually attacked by their peers in religious schools or maahad.
These cases highlight the fact that preventing child sex abuse requires strict scrutiny of child protection policies in schools and organisations that work with children and youth.
Director of the Archdiocesan Single Adults & Youth Office of the Roman Catholic Diocese, Bukit Nanas, Reverend Father Gregory Chan says child sexual abuse cuts across all boundaries and involves babies, preschoolers and primary and secondary school students.
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