Indonesia correspondent
Karangasem, Bali
May 12, 2004
Former Australian diplomat William Stuart Brown
is escorted from court.
Scores of Balinese spectators clapped and burst into song
after a court sentenced a former Australian diplomat to 13 years' jail for
having sex with two boys.
Picture:AFP
After hearing his sentence, William Stuart Brown, 52, trembled, stamped his foot
and yelled "Bastards" at the anti-child-sex campaigners and media who
packed the court.
"The defendant, Brown, William Stuart, is legally and convincingly proven
guilty of committing a continuous obscenity against children," I Nyoman
Sutama, chief judge of the Amlapura District Court, said.
Brown, who worked for the Ausaid office in the Australian embassy in Jakarta in
the early 1980s, had admitted attempting to sodomise two boys but was clearly
stunned at the severity of the sentence.
In the only other case of a foreigner being convicted of sexually abusing
children in Bali, an Italian man received a 10-month prison sentence in 2001 for
similar offences.
The court also fined Brown $A24,000 and confiscated his car, worth another
$10,000 - but returned his brown shirt used as evidence in the trial.
In handing down the decision, one of the three members of the bench, Judge Sahat
Pardamean, said Brown had done more than damage the two boys, both aged 14, who
sat in the gallery less than two metres behind Brown while the 21/2-hour
judgement was read.
"The actions of the defendant damaged the image of Bali as a tourist
destination and created an image of Bali as a haven for pedophiles," he
said.
"It damaged the futures of the victims... he was an ex-diplomat, a highly
educated person. He's a teacher, he's supposed to set a good example."
For months Brown has been concerned that a spate of publicity about the
activities of pedophiles in Bali this year would prompt a harsh punishment. The
sentence he received was two years shy of the maximum.
When his trial began in March, he held a press conference in Karangasem jail to
deny any knowledge of pedophile rings in Bali and to play down the severity of
his offences.
Professor Luh Ketut Suryani, from the Committee Against Sexual Abuse, hailed the
verdict as a breakthrough in efforts to combat child sex abuse in Bali, although
she denied that her group's members, who attended the court, had swayed the
judges.
Before the verdict, the father of one of the boys, Ida Made Buruan, hoped for
the maximum penalty for Brown and said his son continued to suffer the effects
of the assault. "I think he deserves the punishment, it's appropriate. I
hope the punishment will make him stop doing it," he said after the
verdict.
Brown had admitted attempting to sodomise the two boys at an isolated beach in
early January, but insisted he stopped when they resisted. He also admitted
taking about 20 young boys to the beach in a utility and to kissing and touching
them.
Brown's lawyer, Ketut Suwiga Arya Dauh, said he would consult with his client
before deciding whether to appeal. Australian consular staff have visited Brown
in prison and say he has been bored but has otherwise been OK since his arrest
in January.
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