TAIPING, Feb 21 ― The management of a children’s home here today rejected a poison pen letter claiming sexual abuses of the residents sheltered within.
Rumah Kanak-Kanak Taiping vice-president T. Kunacegeram said the allegations surfaced after two police reports lodged against the home management in January for physically abusing the children.
“Maybe the person who wrote the letter decided to turn up the heat after seeing authorities were slow in taking actions on the previous reports,” he told reporters who accompanied Perak Women and Family Development, Character Development and Community Welfare Committee chairman Wong May Ing in a surprise visit to the home this morning.
Kunacegeram also said the author of the letter was never a resident of the home as claimed.
“Our records do not have such name as a resident,” he said, adding that a check at the address in the letter that has since been spread on social media also showed the person does not exist.
In the letter, the author claimed to have stayed at the home between 1982 and 1990 where she was subjected to sexual abuses; she had also named several of her alleged abusers.
Kunacegeram confirmed the names mentioned in the letter had previously served in the home.
While the home has yet to decide whether to lodge a police report, Kunacegeram said some of the people whose names were mentioned in the letter would lodge a report.
“I appeal to the media not to play along with the author of the letter who obviously has ulterior motives. We have been in existence for more than seven decades and thousands of children had stayed with us. Some of them had made good with their lives,” he said, adding that the letter had tarnished the home's reputation.
State Welfare director Ruhaini Zawawi, who was also present during the surprise visit, said officers from the department visit the home periodically.
“We have never come across complaints of sexual abuse from the children,” she said.
Wong advised those who were abused in homes to lodge reports with the Welfare Department and police rather than sending poison pen letters and viralling it on social media.
