Pedophilia scandal uncovered during divorce case: Language school owner arrested

It has been revealed that Mehmet Deniz Önal, the owner and boss of the Prestij Kurs Merkezi, which provides English language training in Mecidiyeköy, Istanbul, had been involved with girls under the age of 18. During a police raid on the home of Önal, who recorded footage of the children, sexual correspondence with his students from the last 5 years and more than 100 video recordings were seized.

In an investigation conducted in secret by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Önal was detained on July 4. He was subsequently arrested by the Istanbul 5th Criminal Court of Peace.

According to a report by Sözcü, it was determined that Önal used codes such as '6666' and '5555' to check whether the girls were with their families. Önal forced girls under the age of 18 to send him nude photos and pressured them to involve their family members in these acts as well. It was determined that Önal communicated with the girls not via WhatsApp, but through another encrypted messaging service to prevent the records from being seized.

PEDOPHILIA POSTS

It was determined that Önal opened two separate accounts on the social media platform Instagram and published images of young girls who were victims of pedophilia, both from within the country and abroad. Önal, who communicated with his students through these accounts, published pedophilic images on accounts named 'allasiztosbaa15' and 'cevatprekazi2023', and later removed the followers from these accounts and deleted the posts.

Lawyer Yağmur Coşan Özer, who ensured the incident came to light, spoke to SÖZCÜ. Stating that she uncovered the truth thanks to a divorce case, Coşan said:

“Önal’s wife claimed she was being cheated on, so we filed a divorce case based on adultery. However, during the trial process, we learned that my client’s husband worked as both the owner and a teacher at the English course he operated. The course is a place attended especially by middle school-aged children. This situation raised suspicions of sexual abuse. We reported it, it was uncovered, and he was arrested.”

In a video from 5 years ago, Mehmet Deniz Önal, who was arrested following the report, is heard in a dialogue regarding a 15-year-old child saying, “If she is like this at this age, who knows what she will be like in the future?”

News Source: 12punto