An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced 11 childcare workers to between two and three years in prison for abusing toddlers at a daycare centre, in a case that sparked nationwide outrage.
Police arrested the workers, all women, in April, alongside the facility’s principal and the head of the foundation that operated the centre.
The arrests followed the circulation of CCTV footage on social media showing young children, most under the age of two, lying on the floor in nappies with their hands and feet bound with rags.
Some of the children’s mothers wept as Judge Sunaryanto delivered the sentences at a court in Yogyakarta, on the island of Java.
The judge, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name, said the workers had been “lawfully and convincingly proven” to have participated in placing children in situations of abuse and neglect, as well as committing acts of violence against them on an ongoing basis.
Imedia Dwi Anjani, whose four-year-old son attended the daycare, broke down in tears as she spoke to AFP after the verdict, expressing disappointment over the sentences.
“These children need a lot of therapy, so if the perpetrators are only sentenced to 2 years or 2.6 years, in our view as parents, that’s not fair,” she said.
The footage triggered a public outcry, prompting the daycare centre to close shortly afterwards.
Police later disclosed that they had found 20 children crammed into a room measuring just three metres by three metres (10 feet by 10 feet).
They estimated that more than half of the approximately 100 children enrolled at the facility had been subjected to maltreatment.
Yogyakarta City Police Chief Eva Guna Pandia said the workers had told investigators that they tied up some children to prevent them from disturbing others.
The workers also cited staff shortages, saying there were not enough personnel to bathe and dress the children.
One parent, Noorman Windarto, told AFP in April that his son had been tied up and repeatedly hospitalised with pneumonia while attending the centre. His daughter, meanwhile, sometimes returned home with bruises that caregivers claimed she had sustained elsewhere.
The daycare’s principal and the head of the foundation that operated the facility are expected to face trial at a later date.
AFP
