Child's molestation : NCPA sleuths arrest van driver

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) sleuths took in for questioning the 63-year-old school van driver from Kadawatha last week who had allegedly sexually molested a 3-year-old pre-school child in a school van, a fortnight ago.

Following a tip off, the driver was arrested at Narahenpita while he was transporting schoolchildren home.

The suspect was produced before the Chief Magistrate, Colombo last week and remanded till November 30 until investigations are completed, NCPA sources told the Sunday Observer.

Following the shocking disclosure the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) has warned parents to keep a vigilant eye on montessori children who travel back and forth from their homes to school in hired passenger vans without a guardian. Some children have now become victims of sexual assault of perverted bus drivers, according to the NCPA.

The incident came to light when the child innocently complained to his parents of the ordeal he suffered at the hands of the driver in the school van. Thereafter, his parents lodged a complaint at the NCPA regarding the sexual assault on their child. The child fell prey to the sexual assault when he returned to the school van after attending the montessori classes before other children returned to the van.

The NCPA after recording the parents' statements produced the child before the Colombo South Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) for a physical examination and commenced investigations. "This was the first occasion where we received a complaint of this nature against a school van driver," NCPA sources said.