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Batam police nab Singaporean for alleged child abuse
Local police in Batam have named suspects in two separate child abuse cases, one involving a Singaporean national.
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Stock illustration of a crime scene (Shutterstock/-)
T
he Barelang Police have arrested a 50-year-old Singaporean man near Batam, the Riau Islands, for allegedly raping his 16-year-old stepdaughter.
Barelang Police chief Sr. Comr. Herbertus Ompusunggu said the case came to light after the victim’s mother told a friend about the abuse, saying she was afraid of going to the police herself after she was threatened by her husband, identified with the initials AS.
“From our investigation, we found that the suspect [forced] the victim to have sex with him [multiple times],” Herbertus said on Saturday.
He added that the child sexual abuse began in June 2022, and that the suspect gave the victim an unknown concoction to drink prior to the abuse.
The victim had previously lived with her grandmother in Karawang, West Java, before moving to Batam in 2022 to live with her mother.
Herbertus said the suspect had been charged with Article 81 of the 2016 Child Protection Law, which carried a maximum punishment of 15 years.
Also on Saturday, local police announced they had arrested EB, a 34-year-old contract worker at the Batam City Administration, over allegations that he had sexually abused his 13-year-old stepdaughter since 2022.
The National Police reported a total of 21,768 cases of violence against women and children in 2023, with 11,084 cases of child abuse, an increase of 12.3 percent compared to 2022.
Domestic violence was the second-highest category at 5,555 reported cases, more than double the 2,241 cases reported the previous year. (ami)
