Anger as child-sex accused go free on bail

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By JIMMY KALEBE
A PRIVATE school principal has been released on a K500 bail on a charge of molesting a 10-year-old girl last week.
And the girl’s parents are fuming and upset that the teacher was freed on bail yesterday.
Lae Metropolitan Chief Supt Anthony Wagambie Jr, pictured, said the accused secured bail through a lawyer and that “it was not the police who released him on bail.”
The girl’s father said: “We are not happy when the teacher was bailed out from police custody on a Sunday. That’s suspicious,” he said.
“The teacher was still in police custody and when we went to court for case mention, the teacher was already released on bail.
“No one is above the law as it applies to all, regardless of status in communities.”
The father said the teacher was someone known to his daughter and trusted, and that he had status in the community.
“I do not know why he (teacher) has betrayed us and committed such a nasty thing to our child.
“The matter was first reported to me and my wife after our daughter decided to tell us. At first she told her mother that she won’t be going to school the next day. My wife then asked her why she did not want to go to school and our child related the incident.
“She cried and told her mother that the principal touched her sexually (on Mar 13).”
Wagambie Jr said the teacher was arrested and charged.
“We have had quite a number of child sexual abuse reports recently. These are abuses by suspects known and trusted by children and parents.”