Janitor receives record 572-year jail sentence for abusing 18 children in Turkey’s Adıyaman

İsmail Saymaz - ADIYAMAN

A janitor has been sentenced to a record 572 years in jail for sexually abusing 18 children in the student lodging of a religious vocational (imam-hatip) secondary school in the southeastern province of Adıyaman.

The man, Mehmet Sait Güler, started to work as a janitor at the school in 2012 and reportedly lived in the lodging of the school with students between November 2013 and February 2015. He shared a dormitory with the students even though this was not allowed according to official regulations.

During this period, Güler sexually abused a number of students by sneaking into their beds at night or seizing them in the facility. He allegedly raped some children in the boiler room, ushering them in on the excuse that he would show them how to operate the heating system.

In February 2015, after leaving his lodging at the dormitory, he reportedly took a number of children to his own home and raped them. It was also reported that he exposed the children to pornographic content, forced them to smoke and beat them.

Güler was detained by police upon a denunciation. The prosecutor subsequently demanded a 572-year jail sentence for him on several charges including “sexually abusing children,” “bodily harm,” “deprivation of liberty,” and “blackmailing.”

Child abuse has recently been a hot debate in Turkey after the rape of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl in the southern province of Adana on Feb. 10 made headlines across Turkey.

Amid national outrage over the case, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 20 that the “harshest penalties” would be applied in such cases going forward.

A legislation package targeting child abuse will be submitted to parliament within the next 10 days, with Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdağ saying on Feb. 24 that chemical castration would be “a small part of measures” to be taken.

Chemical castration, a procedure that involves using anaphrodisiac drugs to reduce sexual drive and performance, does not prevent a person from experiencing sexual urges forever. The drug is administered either by mouth or injection, with a frequency of between once a month and once every three months.