Uduwila Sujatha Child Sexual Abuse Conviction

Rev. Uduwila Sujatha, a Buddhist monk, was convicted by the Balapitiya High Court in August 2023 of the grave sexual abuse of a nine-year-old boy who was living at his temple, in an assault that took place inside the monk's own room. The High Court sentenced him to ten years of rigorous imprisonment, a fine of twenty thousand rupees, and an order to pay the boy two hundred thousand rupees in compensation.

Sujatha appealed the conviction to the Court of Appeal. His counsel argued that the case against him should not stand, pointing to what the defence called contradictions in how the case had been presented at trial. On 26 May 2026 a two-judge bench of the Court of Appeal, comprising Judges B. Shashi Mahendran and Amal Ranaraja, dismissed the appeal in full. The court held that the contradictions the defence had raised were not enough to undermine the prosecution's case, and affirmed both the conviction and the original ten-year sentence.

The case is one of a rising number of prosecutions of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka: the country's National Child Protection Authority recorded complaints against nearly three hundred monks between 2023 and 2026, a pattern this atlas records separately. Sujatha's own case is now concluded at the appellate level; no further appeal is recorded in the sources consulted for this article. He remains sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment.