Convicted pedophile hangs himself

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.