COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, May 17 (UPI) -- A Sri Lankan Buddhist monk tried to commit suicide by drinking insecticide Monday after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a 9-year-old girl.
Bellana Pannaloka Thero, 42, of the Sri Vimalarama Temple in Nugegoda, near Colombo, took a substance from his pocket and drank it shortly after being sentenced to 20 years and fined $100 by a Colombo High Court judge, the BBC reported. He was in critical condition in a hospital, where the substance was judged to be insecticide.
The monk was convicted of the multiple rape of a young Sunday school student in 2001.
Monks play a highly influential role in Sri Lanka, whose 19 million population is about 70 percent Buddhist.
Convictions of monks for sexual abuse are extremely rare in Sri Lanka. In one earlier case a monk was sentenced to 15 years for abusing a boy.
