Sri Lanka's hidden scourge of religious child abuse
1 June 2012
By Saroj Pathirana BBC Sinhala service
Pahalagama Somaratana Thera is one of the few Sri Lankan Buddhist monks to have been found guilty of child abuse inside or outside the country.
Tens of thousands of children regularly attend Sri Lankan Buddhist temples as helpers or novices
Many Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka are ordained at a young age
But if Children's Affairs Minister Tissa Karaliyadda is to be believed, child abuse in religious establishments by both Buddhist and Christian clergy in Sri Lanka is rampant.
Yet according to figures from Sri Lanka's National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), only three Buddhist monks have been convicted of child abuse in Sri Lanka in recent history.
One of those died from poison he drank after he was sentenced for raping a girl aged 13 in 2005.
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