Pervert teacher gets 31 years and three months

It is useful to publicize sexual abuse cases to help form a public opinion. I am trying to focus on these incidents as much as I can in weekday columns. I am writing about sexual abuse cases happening all over the country. As you know, they are pouring… 

Turkey has now become a country surrounded by sexual attacks, murders, rapes and perverts all around. 
But we will not slow down our fight, we will not only watch; we will raise our voices, we will write what we know, and we will continue fighting. 

You may remember the incident when an elementary school teacher sexually abused two girls in the southern province of Antalya’s Alanya district. One of the children had told her mother, “Mom, my teacher kisses me from the mouth.”  

That case has reached a verdict. The pervert teacher has been sentenced to a total of 31 years and three months. So, it is not always true that they get light sentences and a lot of reductions in their punishments.

 Sometimes the guilty, as in this case, receive the penalty they deserve. These kinds of verdicts will scare other abusers, and they should… 

I congratulate the panel of judges, the lawyers, especially lawyer Halime Şenli Bilgin and the mother who never let go of the incident. 

In court, representatives of the Family and Social Policies Ministry were present on behalf of the victim children. There were also representatives from the Antalya Bar Association Women’s Rights Council and Children’s Rights Center representatives and lawyers from The Federation of Women Associations of Turkey (TKDF). 

This is a significant event that so many lawyers from so many institutions were present to defend the victims of abuse. 

The mother of the child had asked for assistance from the federation, and the head of TKDF, Canan Güllü, was always there for them. 

Everything actually starts by taking the challenge. This mother has done this. As she wished, everything proceeded in secrecy. Their pictures and names were not on the papers. They were not “publicized,” in her terms. But the crime was punished. 

She is an exemplary and courageous mother. She is from Alanya and wears a headscarf. She never said, as many others do, “Let us keep quiet, it will be forgotten. Let the pervert find his punishment from Allah.” 
She did not do that. She fought till the end so that other little girls do not experience the same thing. She emphasized that not her daughter but the teacher did the shameful act. I congratulate her for her determination and courage. 

The pervert teacher, identified only with the initials K.D., was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Article 103 of the Turkish Penal Code. This penalty was increased by five years because he was the teacher of the kids, he had done misconduct by using his power as a teacher and as an educator. 

Because he has committed the same crime more than once, his penalty was increased by one fourth and he was sentenced to 18 years and nine months. Because he did not have a previous record and because of his good conduct at the court, there was reduction and his sentence was dropped to 15 years, seven months and 15 days. 

The other family had withdrawn their complaint, but despite that, because he has committed the crime against two little girls, he was sentenced twice with the same penalty. In other words, he was sentenced to 31 years and three months, and was later arrested. 

In the case where the other family withdrew their compliant, that little girl was also heard at the hearing. The bar assigned a lawyer for that girl too. The defendant was also punished for what he had done to this second girl. Indeed, the state had done its fundamental duty in this case.