Here’s something you don’t see everyday: a nun in full habit being schlepped off in shackles. What did she do? Well, she’s charged with something so awful that I’m going to just issue ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS, right here and now:
Handcuffed and in a bulletproof vest. That’s how Japanese nun Kumiko Kosaka appeared during her appearance before the Argentine courts. The religious woman is accused of covering up for priests who, for years, sexually abused deaf children in their care at the Provolo Institute of Mendoza, in Argentina.
“I’m innocent. I didn’t know of the abuses. I’m a good person who has given my life over to God,” the nun swore during her testimony. For the justice system there is sufficient proof against her, and for that reason, her request for house arrest was denied. The nun will remain incarcerated at Agua de Avispas, near the Almafuerte prison.
The events came to light following several testimonies by deaf minors who had been raped, who made their declarations assisted by sign-language interpreters and under the guidance of psychologists, since they were minors and disabled.
The victims’ attorney, Sergio Salinas, of the NGO “Xumek”, explained the three cases for which Kumiko was imputed: “The denunciation of a young girl, 17 years old, who declared that she was abused when she was 5 years old and that Kumiko had put a diaper on her to stop the bleeding the rape had caused.
“The other victim said that the nun took her to the residence of the priest, Horacio Corbacho (also detained) and she ended up being abused. Other testimonies state that the nun participated on more than one occasion in touching the girls, as well as asking them to touch each other and making them watch pornography with the security guard, Jorge Bordón (another detainee) on a TV set.”
Salinas commented that the nun denied the incidents before the Mendoza court, but did not submit proofs, for which she must submit herself to psychological examinations due to sexual offences. The judge himself has called her “the demon in the form of a woman”.
The objective of the 60-year-old Japanese was to identify the children who were most vulnerable, and cover the crimes committed by her superiors. The testimonies against her were mounting, and when the police came looking for her, she fled. She had been on the run for more than a month when, last Tuesday, she turned herself in at a police station in Buenos Aires. She is also accused of beating deaf pupils who attended the school, and forcing them to eat until they vomited onto their plates.
Alongside the nun, there are five men detained, two priests and three employees (the guard, an altar boy, and the gardener). Of the two priests, the one with greater power in the institution, an Italian named Nicolás Corradi (82) was accused of sexually abusing children since 1984, in Verona, Italy. He was transferred to Argentina to cover up his aberrant acts.
Translation mine.
I really don’t know who’s the worst here: the priest who ordered the nun to pick out vulnerable deaf children for him to violate, or the nun herself for not calling the police on him, and for complying with the abuses. The fact that she not only provided victims, but abused some herself and covered up the crimes, tells me that the priests and male employees also facing charges aren’t the only monsters here.
