The Pertapis Children's Home — a safehouse for children in need — tragically became a house of horror when the very people who were supposed to take care of them displayed inhumane and exceedingly abusive behaviour over a period of two years.
Nine children — from ages of four to 11 — had their lives gone to hell as they suffered at the hands of two employees. The New Paper reports that 26-year-old Muhammad Abdul Gani and 29-year-old Filipino national Joanne Joy Coloma Dadiz were charged yesterday with abusing the children at the Pertapis Children's Home in Kovan between 2012 and January last year.
Abdul — ironically serving as the home's welfare officer and religious teacher — had allegedly abused eight of the children by grabbing their heads, shoving his hand into their mouths and whipping them with wooden cane. He faces charges that includes kicking away a chair a nine-year-old girl was standing on and leaving a four-year-old inside a cupboard, causing him emotional injury.
Coloma has been accused of sitting on the back of an 11-year-old girl for thee minutes as the child laid faced down on the floor.
Bail of $20,000 was offered to Muhammad and a bail of $10,000 was granted to Coloma. Both will appear in courth again on May 18 for a pre-trial conference. If convicted (and they should) they could be fined up to $4,000 and/or jailed four years for each charge.
Shockingly, both of them still remain employees under Pertapis but not at the home. They have been ordered not to approach the victims or their families directly or indirectly.
Photo: Google Maps screengrab
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