The criminal conviction of Mulleriyawa Wimalatissa, 65, chief incumbent of Sri Sambuddha Walukarama Temple in Thalakolawawa, Hurigaswewa, Sri Lanka, for the sexual abuse of a fourteen-year-old boy on the night of 10 May 2022, the boy's first night at the temple after being brought there by another monk for ordination. The boy fled the following morning and was found by police. The Anuradhapura Special High Court for Child Crimes, under Judge Sandun Withana, convicted Wimalatissa on three related charges on 29 May 2026 and sentenced him to 30 years' rigorous imprisonment across the three counts, running concurrently; taking submitted medical reports on his health into account, the court structured the sentence so he would serve an effective ten years. He was also ordered to pay 500,000 rupees in compensation and fines on each charge.
Facts
Documented Findings
Accused DocumentedMulleriyawa Wimalatissa alone; no other individual was charged in this case in any source found. Victim EstimateThe fourteen year old boy named in this conviction. Key FindingThe Anuradhapura Special High Court for Child Crimes convicted Wimalatissa on all three charges relating to the abuse. No public denial or defence account of the underlying events is recorded in the sources consulted; his defence's submissions at sentencing concerned his health, not his guilt, and the court accounted for that in structuring an effective ten-year term within the 30-year total. No appeal is recorded as of 14 August 2026. 1 Inquiry Profile
Kind of Record JurisdictionSri Lanka (Thalakolawawa, Hurigaswewa; tried by the Anuradhapura Special High Court for Child Crimes) 1 Commissioned ByAnuradhapura Special High Court for Child Crimes 1 Publication Year Period Covered, From Learn More
A Single Night at the Temple: Mulleriyawa Wimalatissa's Thirty-Year Sentence
On the night of 10 May 2022, a fourteen-year-old boy was brought to Sri Sambuddha Walukarama Temple in Thalakolawawa, in Sri Lanka's Anuradhapura district, to be ordained as a novice monk. He was handed over by another monk for the ordination. That same night, the temple's chief incumbent, Mulleriyawa Wimalatissa, sexually abused him. The boy fled the temple the following morning and was found by police from the Thambuttegama station.
The Anuradhapura Special High Court for Child Crimes, under Judge Sandun Withana, convicted the 65-year-old Wimalatissa on three charges relating to the abuse on 29 May 2026. The court sentenced him to a total of thirty years' rigorous imprisonment across the three counts, running concurrently, along with fines and an order to pay the victim five hundred thousand rupees in compensation. Wimalatissa's defence counsel submitted medical reports describing the defendant's various illnesses, and the court, taking his health into account, structured the sentence so that he would serve an effective ten years.
No public denial or defence account of the events themselves is recorded in the sources consulted for this article; the defence's submissions to the court concerned sentencing rather than guilt. Wimalatissa's case was decided at trial level only; no appeal is recorded as of this writing. It is one of a rising number of prosecutions of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka in recent years, a pattern this atlas records separately from this individual case.
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This source names Sri Lanka directly: "Temple in Thalakolawawa, Hurigaswewa, Sri Lanka, for the sexual abuse of a fourteen-year-old boy on the night of 10 May 2022, the boy's first night at the temple after being brought there by another..."
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