Ugandan student ‘tortured to confess gay sex’ then expelled
The student was expelled for having gay sex (St. Mary’s College Kisubi/facebook)
A Ugandan student has been beaten and burned with a flat iron until he wrote a confession saying he had gay sex—which was then used to expel him from school.
The child was studying in senior one—a year group for 13 and 14-year-olds—at St Mary’s College Kisubi in central Uganda when he was attacked by students in three and four years older than him in June, his uncle told national newspaper The Observer.
The uncle said: “After beating him thoroughly, they forced him to write three confession letters.
The school believed his accusers’ gay sex claims (Julius Rwakishumba/facebook)
“Our boy did not get words off head; whatever his tormentors said is what he put in writing.”
After signing the confessions, he was rescued by a prefect who took him to a safe place to sleep for the night, but the next day, he found some of his belongings vandalised and the rest left outside the school gate.
“The allegedly sodomised boy had no clue what had happened”
The school told him to leave, but after his mother requested an explanation, authorities produced the three signed confessions, as well as the alleged victim and three students who said they had witnessed the incident.
The student had reportedly been previously asked by his accuser to join his gang as a ‘bouncer’—that is, someone who would act as one of his enforcers in the boarding school.
The school which the student attended before he was expelled for having gay sex (pearl speed/google maps)
When the boy refused, his accuser reportedly burned him with a flat iron and carried out his plan to frame him.
The alleged victim and witnesses give their accounts
“Two of the students they presented as witnesses had learned about the matter on that very day,” the uncle said.
“The allegedly sodomised boy also had no clue while one who insisted that he saw the act taking place had conflicting statements.”
The student’s accuser said: “I didn’t hear anything happening to me at night but I found my shirt unbuttoned and pyjamas in the thighs. I had even belted my pyjamas.”
Medical reports indicate that after being tortured, the expelled student had swellings on his upper arms and upper back, as well as tenderness on his back, chest and legs and the left side of his face.
The examining officer recommended medication for the boy, since “when he sits for some time, the legs feel paralysed for some time then get back to normal.”
The older students allegedly framed him for gay sex (stephen kiyingi/facebook)
When his parents went back to the school five days after the boy’s expulsion, the headteacher made it clear that the decision was set in stone.
His parents have reported the beating to the police and filed a lawsuit against the school in order to clear their son’s name in the High Court.
Students have been expelled for gay relations before
In August, two girls in Durban were thrown out of their school for kissing each other.
The teenagers were told to leave the Inanda Seminary, a private Christian boarding school for girls, after seminary officials said they were caught kissing for 20 minutes, which the students denied.
The seminary said that the girls were thrown out for “misconduct,” but would not provide any further explanation.
