Nearly 300 Sri Lankan monks have been accused of abusing children in the last three years, leading to charges against nearly 30 of them, the country’s child protection agency has disclosed.
The revelation by Sri Lanka’s National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), which was made in response to a freedom of information request by OCCRP, comes as the Buddhist-majority country grapples with the recent arrest of one of its most senior clergymen for alleged child sex offences.
Venerable Pallegama Hemarathana Thero, 71, who oversees eight of the country’s most sacred Buddhist sites, was arrested on May 9 for the alleged sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl over a number of years.
The cleric has not been charged and was released on bail last week. One of his defense lawyers, Mahesh Kotuwella, said that Hemarathana is currently under investigation for statutory rape.
“My client firmly denies all allegations made against him,” Hemarathana’s lawyer told OCCRP.
Hemarathana’s arrest has led to controversy in Sri Lanka, where monks are deeply admired and respected, and criticism of clergy is often viewed as an attack on the identity of the country’s dominant Sinhalese Buddhist majority.
Sensitivities are so strong that many Sri Lankan media outlets have not reported on Hemarathana’s arrest, despite his case attracting international coverage.
The NCPA told OCCRP that members of the public and clergy had made complaints against 285 different Buddhist monks between May 1, 2023 and May 1, 2026. NCPA referrals led to charges against 27 of the accused monks, the agency said, but added it did not have data on how many were convicted.
The NCPA’s chairperson, retired justice Preethi Inoka Ranasinghe, told OCCRP that over 70 percent of the complaints were for sexual offences. She added that cases are rising in the country, and that much abuse, including by religious figures, continues to go unreported.
The NCPA has also criticized the response of authorities to allegations of sexual abuse by the senior monk, Hemarathana. The agency’s legal officer, Sajeewani Abeykoon, recently told a court that the authority “had to take a stick and chase the police” to get him arrested.
Professor Harendra de Silva, the founding chairperson of the NCPA, told OCCRP that the elevated status of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka’s conservative society makes it difficult to arrest those accused of offences against children.
“You need to remember that a clergy, especially a leading figure, means a powerful person with a lot of money,” he said.
As the investigation in Hemarathana’s case proceeds, his lawyer Kotuwella told OCCRP that the Attorney General of Sri Lanka will determine “whether indictments will be filed before the High Court in relation to the allegation of statutory rape.”
Read the full article at OCCRP →