Suspect admits to kidnapping, molesting and selling 96 children

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/12/2011

Following the arrest of Sartono, 33, on suspicion of kidnapping, molesting and trafficking children in the Thousand Islands regency, the suspect admitted to shocked investigators that he had committed acts against at least 96 children.

Thousand Islands Police detective chief Adj. Comr. Reynold EP Hutagalung said Sartono told police investigators that his pedophilic behavior spanned 17 years.

“He remembers the names of 16 children so far,” Reynold said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

In the last two years alone, Sartono allegedly molested 54 children.

Sartono said that he had kidnapped, molested and sold 42 children prior to 2008.

“Most of them were street children between 14-years-old and 17-years-old who lived in the vicinities of Purwakarta railway station, Cikampek railway station and Kampung Bandan railway station,” Reynold said.

On Tuesday, police investigators took Sartono back to the locations of his admitted pedophilic acts to help him remember the events.

“We brought the suspect to Serang, Banten, to find more evidence of the crimes,” he said.

Police arrested Sartono at a motel in the Harapan islet on Friday, saving Rul, 14, who had been kidnapped by Sartono and was missing since Nov. 25, 2010. Sartono had allegedly sodomized Rul and forced him into prostitution by serving other grown-up men in exchange for money.