ANKARA: A Turkish court jailed a paedophile a record 572 years for abusing 18 children at the school where he worked, reports said Tuesday, as alarm grows over the extent of child abuse in the country. The defendant was found guilty of multiple crimes including “child sexual abuse” for which he was given 30 years for each of the 18 boys he abused, the newspaper reported. The subject of child abuse has been under the spotlight in the past week after two recent separate incidents of child sexual abuse reported in local media shocked Turkey. Following public outrage, the government was quick to respond by setting up a commission on preventing child abuse with officials including six government ministers. Women’s rights groups have opposed the measure, saying that the solution to stopping child sexual abuse was to stop giving reduced sentences to offenders.

Source: New Strait Times February 27, 2018 17:37 UTC