Convicted pedophile hangs himself

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar

A former Australian diplomat to Indonesia, William Stuart Brown hanged himself less than 24 hours after he received a stiff prison sentence from Karangasem District Court here.

He was sentenced to 13 years in prison for sexually abusing underage boys on the resort island of Bali.

After hearing of the death of Brown, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he regretted the incident, but quickly added that the sentence was appropriate.

Brown, 52, was found dead in his cell early on Wednesday morning by a prison janitor. He hanged himself using a noose made from material taken from his mattress, Ida Bagus Oka, a prison guard said on Wednesday.

The noose was tied to metal bars blocking access to a vent in the ceiling of the cell, he said.

Police personnel were immediately called in, and, after few minutes of investigation, found two cans of insecticide in the cell. "Besides the cans of insecticide, we also spotted a pair of scissors, a razor blade and raffia string," said chief of Karangasem Police precinct Adj. Sr. Comr. Sukawinaya.

The senior police officer said that the police would focus on investigating why those things were in the cell, which created the impression that officials at the penitentiary had facilitated his suicide.

The police officer explained that the preliminary investigation indicated that Brown, who looked depressed during the trial on Tuesday, most likely hanged himself.

The preliminary conclusion was made as there were no signs of injury found on the body of the victim. Brown, who served as a diplomat to Indonesia from 1982 to 1984, was estimated to have died four to five hours before he was found dead at 6 a.m on Wednesday. The corpse was transported to the hospital for a post mortem examination.

Brown was proven guilty by the court of repeatedly sodomizing two boys in Jasri area, Karangasem regency in early January this year.

Separately, Downer confirmed in Canberra that Brown was recalled before his posting in Jakarta was due to finish. A suspicion that he had long been a child molester and an overt homosexual had led into his dismissal, said Downer, as quoted by AFP.