Girl from Sabac details drunken father's actions: Instead of the mother, teachers come to her rescue

A 14-year-old girl (whose name is known to the newsroom), a seventh grade student in the Cvetin Brkic Elementary School in Glusci, has accused her father, N. N., and her brother, N.N. (initials altered) of sexual harassment. The father and the brother have been arrested and placed in 48-hour police detention, and will be questioned during the day at the Sabac District Public Prosecutor's Office.

As Telegraf.rs has learned, for more than a year the father has been often forcing his daughter to undress whenever he was under the influence of alcohol.

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"He would then look at me, touch and caress me and didn't try anything else. He was often drunk so this was repeated day after day, four to five times a week. My brother didn't ask me to take my clothes of, but he was also touching me as if I was not his sister," the girl said.

She tells of the hell she has had to live through. She had to do all the chores around the house, often getting beaten by her father if she refused to do something. Her father forced her to work as a day laborer in the village, so she was often absent from school because she would be sent to pick tobacco leaves. When she returned home, she had to give her father all the money she had earned. Often, she said, she was hungry and lacked even her mother's understanding.

After months of torture, the girl was looking for a way to leave the house. When she was no longer able to suffer the beatings, psychological abuse and sexual harassment, especially since the mother failed to protect her, she told her teachers about the situation.

She hid in her sister's house in a nearby village for a day after she told a teacher about the violence she had been subjected to, and then she told her form teacher. When she didn't show up at home, the father went to the school the next day where he find out what the girl had said. He was furious and said it was all nonsense, Telegraf.rs has learned.

The Glusci Elementary School has confirmed that a team for protection against violence met on the same day and that the school has sent a notification to the Bogatic Welfare Center about this case of suspected domestic violence.

At the police station in Bogatic, the girl yesterday described in detail the torment she went through at home, while her father defended himself by saying he would merely tickle her sometimes out of paternal love, that he expressed his love for his other children the same way, and that this had nothing to do with illicit sexual acts and sexual harassment.

In addition from having a criminal complaint filed against them on suspicion of performing unlawful sexual acts and incest (Article 197 of the Criminal Code), the father and the brother have also received their restraining orders. Both are in custody, awaiting a hearing at the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Sabac, which will decide on the qualification of the crime.

The Welfare Center in Bogatic said that the girl was temporarily housed with her sister in a village near Sremska Mitrovica and that a team of experts will work on the case and decide how the girl would be cared for going forward.

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(Telegraf.rs)