A 12-year-old boy pulled down the panties of a 3-year-old girl and touched her buttocks in a public toilet on Friday, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The boy studies in a secondary school in Taipa, Ho said. The toddler is a kindergartener.
According to Ho, on Friday at 5 p.m. the toddler’s mother went to a library in a park in Taipa to read, accompanied by another mother with her 5-year-old son. Afterwards, the victim and the 5-year-old boy went into a unisex public toilet together, Ho said, adding that the 12-year-old boy rushed into the same toilet as the two youngsters and locked the door.
Ho said that the 12-year-old boy then pulled down the victim’s panties, while the younger boy left the toilet. The mothers, sitting near the toilet, were worried and knocked on the door. The 12-year-old boy then pulled the victim’s panties back up and fled the scene, while the toddler told her parent that he had touched her buttocks.
Ho said that the victim’s mother immediately reported the case to the police. PJ officers used their citywide CCTV camera system and identified the 12-year-old boy who lives in a building nearby, from where he and his mother were taken to the police station the next day. The boy denied the accusation, but the police, judging from the oral evidence of the 5-year-old boy and the toddler, assume that the 12-year-old boy sexually coerced the victim.
The case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), Ho said.
Macau’s age of criminal responsibility starts at 16. However, children younger than that can be ordered by the authorities to undergo non-penal correctional measures.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam looks on during yesterday’s press conference at the PJ headquarters. – Photo: William Chan
