A senior Buddhist monk from south London has been jailed for sexually assaulting an underage girl.
Pahalagama Somartana, 65, of the Thames Buddhist temple in Selsdon, was sentenced to seven years in jail after being found guilty of carrying out four sexual attacks on a girl aged between 8 and 9 at the time of the attacks. The court heard how Somaratana, a Sinhalese originally from Sri Lanka, enticed his victim to his room with sweets before touching her.
He had denied attacks at a temple in Chiswick between 1977 and 1978, and a second string of attacks at the Croydon temple in the mid 80's, reported The Guardian. He was cleared of the attacks in Croydon, but found guilty of the first attacks.
The monk was arrested in September 2011 at Heathrow Airport.
He is one of the few Buddhist monks to be found guilty, though there have been numerous complaints of abuse by monks, and at monasteries in Sri Lanka. But child abuse in Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka could be rampant, according to a BBC report.
