The Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction and 10-year rigorous imprisonment sentence imposed on a Buddhist monk for the sexual abuse of a nine-year-old boy at a Balapitiya temple in 2009.
In a judgment delivered on May 26, the court dismissed the appeal of Rev. Uduwila Sujatha against the verdict handed down by the Balapitiya High Court in August 2023. The High Court had also imposed a Rs.20,000 fine and ordered Rs.200,000 in compensation to the victim.
The boy, who was living at the temple at the time, testified that the abuse took place inside the monk’s room. He later informed a relative, leading to a police complaint. The Court of Appeal noted that medical evidence from the Judicial Medical Officer was consistent with the victim’s account.
Dismissing the appeal, the court held that contradictions raised by the defence were insufficient to undermine the prosecution’s case, and affirmed that the trial judge had correctly accepted the victim’s evidence as truthful.
The ruling lands amid intensifying scrutiny of misconduct within the Buddhist clergy. It is a separate, older case from the arrest of Pallegama Hemarathana Thera on child abuse charges, and follows the recent acquittal of a Seethawaka monk in an unrelated matter and the child-abuse sentencing of a Melbourne-based Sri Lankan monk.
