Priest gets jail in molestation case

The accused identified as Stephen Joseph was running a home for children named ‘Little Angel’ at Mookuperi village. Sources claimed that children, both boys and girls, from poor economic background and children of parents serving a term in the prisons used to stay in the house. They would attend to school in the neighbourhood. As many as 23 girls and 13 boys were staying in the house in the year 2012.

Girls threatened: Stephen who was in-charge of the home had sexually molested 21 girls regularly for several years and had even threatened them of dire consequences if they tried to complain about the incident to their parents. Hence most of the girls remained silent to the sexual molestation of Stephen and as days went by the sexual torture increased. They could bear it no longer. In 2012, a 15-yearold girl from Dharmapuri who was sexually molested by Stephen had informed her parents about the ordeal faced by her. Then the parents of the victim had filed a complaint at the Nazareth police station. Based on the complaint from the family, police carried out investigations. During the investigation all the inmates had informed the police that they were also sexually molested by Stephen. 

Inmates shifted: Based on the statements given by the inmates Stephen was arrested and was sent to prison.  Later the inmates were shifted to other safe homes in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts. The case was investigated by the Additional Sessions Court-II at Tirunelveli and the order was passed by Judge Abdul Kadar. In the judgement, the Judge had sentenced Stephen for 14 years and had directed him to pay a compensation of Rs 8 lakhs each to all the victims.

A 28-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a women’s court here for sexually assaulting an 80-year-old woman in February last.

The district FTC judge Selvasundari had sentenced Chandrasekaran of Velipalayam in the district to life and slapped a fine of Rs 1000 on him. The judge also directed the government to grant a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the woman. According to the prosecution, Chandrasekaran had beaten up the woman, who was sleeping in a temple on Feb 6, 2016 and had sexually assaulted her. She was admitted to the Nagapattinam general hospital. Based on a complaint from the victim’s daughter, Chandrasekaran was arrested.