Source: Yahoo! News
Wire Service: AP
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050517/ap_on_re_as/sri_lanka_monk_abuse
On May 17, 2005 the Associated Press reported, "A monk drank poison and later died after becoming the first Buddhist clergyman to be convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in Sri Lanka, court officials and police said.
Monk Bellana Panniyaloka was found guilty of grave sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl in 2001 and was given the maximum 20-year penalty, court official N.K. Siripala said.
Soon after the sentence, Panniyaloka drank from a bottle he had concealed in his robes and collapsed, Siripala said. He was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.
'He had consumed a large quantity of insecticide and died of poisoning,' said Hector Weerasinghe, director of the Colombo National Hospital.
The priest belongs to a temple in Nugegoda, just outside the capital Colombo, where the victim was a Sunday school student, Siripala said."