Canadian school administrator Neil Bantleman (L) reacts as the translator explains the judges’ verdict during the trial on April 2, 2015, in the case against him for sexually assaulting children at the Jakarta International School. Photo: AFP/BAYISMOYO
Neil Bantleman and Ferdinant Michel are currently incarcerated in Indonesian prison after they were judged guilty in the highly criticized Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) sex abuse case. But just today they were awarded damages in a defamation lawsuit that they filed and won against the mother of one of their supposed victim, a lawsuit that they pursued through the Singaporean court system.
Bantleman, who worked as an administrator at JIS, and Ferdinant, a teaching assistant, were found guilty of abusing three young boys at JIS in April at the conclusion of their trial in the South Jakarta District Court and sentenced to 10 years each.They are currently appealing that decision.
But back in September 2014, Bantleman, Ferdinant and the JIS administration filed a defamation suit against a German citizen who is the mother of one of their supposed victims.
The suit accused the woman of making false statements regarding the sexual abuse of students at the school, including her own son. The statement were sent through e-mail and WhatsApp messages to other parents.
The defamation lawsuit was filed in Singapore due to its strict defamation laws and the fact that its courts can have jurisdiction in international cases if one of the parties established a presence in Singapore, even for a short time. Kei-Jin Chew, a lawyer representing JIS and the teachers, said the defendant was living in Singapore when she spread the defamatory remarks.
One piece of evidence for the defamation lawsuit are medical records from a Singaporean medical center showing that doctors examined the defendants son and could could not find any definitive signs of sexual abuse.
(Those same medical records, which were certified by a Singapore court in February, were dismissed as evidence in the teachers’ Jakarta trial. The head judge in that trial said Indonesian courts have “no obligation to accept a court ruling issued by another country that is related to a case we examine.”)
The defendant in the Singapore defamation suit never showed up for her court appearance in January and as a result, the Singapore High Court issued a summary judgment against her.
The court’s assessment of damages in the case have finally been completed and Bantleman and Ferdinant were formally awarded a total of SGD 130,000 in damages. The defendant was also ordered to pay JIS SG$100,000 in damages. But those numbers are small compared to the SGD 7.95 million sought by the prosecution, which included SG$ 4.1 million in economic losses JIS said had been caused by the damage done to its reputation by the defendant’s accusations.
“There is no fixed formula governing the assessment of damages. To ensure that such assessments proceed in a coherent and principled fashion, sufficient regard must be paid to past awards in comparable cases,” said Justice Lee Seiu Kin, as quoted by the Straits Times. He also noted that past awards in similar cases were in line with his ruling.
