Khaberni - In a new development in the case of "Seeds" International School in Al-Salam City, Egypt, where 4 individuals from the staff are accused of sexually assaulting 5 kindergarten children, the Public Prosecution ordered the provisional detention of the suspects pending investigation; for incidents of kidnapping combined with indecency.
The Public Prosecution started the investigations with a team from the East Cairo Prosecution and initiated by listening to the statements of the five victimized children and their relatives - after gaining their trust and sensing their determination to proceed with the legal processes, considering the confidentiality of their data and preventing its circulation in accordance with laws that punish the disclosure of such data.
Threatening the children with a knife to terrorize them
The Prosecution found that the victims were subjected to indecent acts after being lured by the accused to an area in the school not covered by cameras and beyond supervision; the accused then exploited the young age of the children under the guise of play before committing the indecent acts and threatening them with harm using a knife, which terrified them and prevented them from informing their relatives about the incident.
The Public Prosecution conducted a legal lineup during which the victims identified three of the accused, and documented this with video clips.
The Child Emergency Line was notified, and a specialist was assigned who submitted a report confirming the referred-to sexual assault on the children.
Detailed confessions
The Prosecution also obtained detailed confessions from two of the school staff, which matched the accounts of the children and their relatives in the investigations; they admitted that they, along with the others, have been luring kindergarten "students" away from supervision and surveillance cameras, taking advantage of the children's young age, innocence, and fear of threat, and then committing indecent acts.
In addition, a team from the Public Prosecution conducted an inspection of the crime scene – documented with video clips - guided by the victimized children, where they seized the knife used in the threat of harm and some physical evidence suspected to be remnants of some of the investigated incidents, in addition to being guided by one of the confessing accused about the method and place of committing the crime, and documented that in a video clip.
Digital evidence
The Public Prosecution ordered the seizure of the mobile phones belonging to the accused and obtained digital evidence represented by the contents of mobile phones belonging to two of the accused which revealed their passion for such sexual deviations.
The Prosecution also listened to the statements of the school staff to understand their job functions and the system of work and supervision over the children.
In this regard, it notes that it has allocated a separate investigation on incidents of endangering children, with ongoing completion of its procedures.
The Public Prosecution ordered the provisional detention of the accused pending investigations, and also ordered the sending of the physical evidence seized from the crime scene and the accused and the victims to the Forensic Medicine Authority for conducting forensic examinations on them all and preparing a technical report on that.
