Officer reporting on child abuse in hospital dismissed by administration

Child abuse occurring in a hospital in Istanbul has been swept under the carpet by the hospital’s administration, as it dismissed the officer who reported the sexual abuse to the prosecution office
Thursday, 18 January 2018 16:40

115 children under 18 years old taken to the Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Training and Research Hospital in İstanbul within the same five-month period have become pregnant. 39 of the 115 children sexually abused at the hospital are Syrian while 38 of them are under 15 years old.

An officer working at the hospital submitted an official report about the ongoing child sexual abuse in the hospital.

A senior official at the hospital stated that while they had been informed that there was no negligence in the reporting of the incidents, they had not seen the report on child abuse prepared by the hospital official.

An investigation has been launched regarding the officer who submitted the report to the prosecution, while the officer has been given a new duty station.   

According to a regulation introduced by the Ministry of Health, all pregnant children under 18 years old have to be reported to the Police Department.

THE GOVERNORATE DID NOT GRANT PERMISSION FOR INVESTIGATION

The prosecution office had requested that the Deputy Chief Physician Dr A.A. and social service expert N.D. be investigated. Yet, on December 4, 2017, decided to reject the prosecution’s request and refused to grant permission for the office to pursue an investigation about the two officers, deemed responsible for the child abuse at the hospital. The Governorate claimed that A.A. and N.D. cannot be charged with professional misconduct, because there is no evidence for breach of duty according to the records.

There are also two children born in 2003 on the list, according to the registration list of 115 of the sexually abused and now pregnant children, while 11 of them were born in 2002.

According to the list, 39 of the children come from refugee families who fled to Turkey due to the war in Syria.