Supporters brace for verdict in Bantleman trial
Family, friends and colleagues of a former Calgary teacher accused of sexually abusing students in Indonesia are bracing for a guilty verdict when the court case concludes this week.
“We’re optimistic, but we’re also being realists as far as what we’ve been facing. There’s a 97 per cent conviction rate at this level of court historically,” said Guy Bantleman, brother of the accused.
Neil Bantleman, 45, has already spent 261 days in an Indonesian jail, first waiting for charges, then a trial, and now a verdict.
“Given the rulings that have gone on throughout the trial, and the history of guilty verdicts at this level of court, we’re obviously apprehensive of what the verdict will be,” his brother said.
Bantleman, originally from Burlington, Ont., taught at Calgary’s Webber Academy for 10 years. He was arrested in July along with an Indonesian teaching assistant. Both men are accused of sexually abusing three students at the Jakarta International School in Indonesia, where Bantleman and his wife Tracy have worked for four years.
Both men, and their families, vehemently deny the allegations. If convicted, they could spend 15 years in prison.
After waiting more than three months in jail, held without charge, Bantleman was charged late last year, and his trial began in early December.
Prosecutors have asked for a 12- year sentence, and a verdict is expected to be handed down Thursday morning, late Wednesday in Calgary.
From Day 1, Bantleman’s journey through the Indonesian justice system has been arduous, and the trial has been marred by injustices, says his family.
“This ( case) is not about truth and honesty. This is about greed and corruption,” Guy Bantleman said.
“Neil’s case could be the case study for a corrupt, manufactured scenario ... This is about a citizen who is being abused, for lack of a better word, within a system. He’s a pawn within a much bigger game that’s being played. He’s not been able to get the fair trial he deserves.”
Neil Bantleman was arrested only after the parents of one of the alleged child victims failed to reach a financial settlement with the school over alleged abuse by school janitors.
The janitors have been sentenced to eight years in prison, a verdict lawyers have vowed to appeal.
Bantleman’s attorney says many irregularities have occurred since the case began, and he’s stated none of the evidence submitted by the prosecutor, and medical evidence provided, is associated with the accusations facing Bantleman.
Throughout his months in jail, Bantleman has received an outpouring of support from across Canada and abroad. Near the end of March, Bantleman and the teaching assistant he was charged with, Ferdinant Tjiong, presented the judge with copies of more than 3,000 letters of support.
Neil Webber, the founder, president and chairman of Webber Academy, where Bantleman worked as a physical education teacher and coach, described him as a wonderful man.
Webber said that, when he first heard about the allegations, he couldn’t believe it.
“I was surprised, and shocked. He’d be the last person I could imagine having done anything like what he was charged to have done,” Webber said.
Several vigils held at the private school were attended by Bantleman’s former colleagues and students.
“They don’t want to see the poor man be convicted and languish in prison for something we don’t see how he possibly could have done,” Webber said.
Nancy McKellar, who worked with Bantleman for several years at Webber Academy, said she’s 100 per cent certain the allegations are not true.
“It’s important that as many people as possible know he’s a man with great integrity and know that he’s innocent without a shadow of a doubt,” she said.