Buddhist statue stolen from Japanese temple returned from South Korea
Dozens of temple members and local residents standing by the roadside applauded to welcome the statue as a truck carrying a wooden container with it arrived at Kannonji, a temple on Japan's western island of Tsushima.
The statue is expected to be kept at a local museum following a ceremony at the temple later in the day.
The gilt bronze statue Bodhisatva – worshipped for mercy and compassion – is depicted in a sitting position and measures about 20in in height.
It has been designated a cultural asset of the region and was one of two statues stolen in 2012 from Kannonji by thieves who were looking to sell them in South Korea.
The South Korean government had returned the other statue to the Japanese temple soon after the authorities recovered it from the thieves, who were arrested and charged.
But the Bodhisatva became trapped in legal dispute after Buseoksa, a South Korean temple in the western coastal city of Seosan, filed a lawsuit, claiming it was the rightful owner.
South Korea's Supreme Court in 2023 ruled in favour of the Japanese temple, ordering the South Korean temple to return the statue.
After all the paperwork was completed in January, the statue remained on a 100-day loan to the South Korean temple for a farewell exhibit.
The temple in South Korea said it was saddened by the statue's return and insisted it was the rightful owner.
'All our faithful … feel like crying,' Woonou, the temple's chief monk, told The Associated Press over the phone.
He insisted that Japan 'plundered' the statue from Korea and deserves 'international condemnation'.
Sekko Tanaka, a former head monk at Kannonji, told reporters that the handover ceremony at the South Korean temple on Saturday was 'truly amicable and we shook hands'.
'A calm after a storm,' he said, adding that he felt relieved to see the dispute resolved while he is still alive.
Mr Tanaka said he hoped South Koreans would visit Tsushima and discover its centuries-old cultural ties with Korea, though there will now be higher security around the statue.
Japan and South Korea have long had disputes over Japanese atrocities during its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean Peninsula, though their ties improved due to shared concern over regional security.
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WHEN police officers walked round the corner, as she was being raped on an industrial estate, 14-year-old Jamie Lee Jones should have felt relief that they had come to her rescue. But shockingly, instead of arresting her attacker - an illegal immigrant – they put HER in handcuffs and arrested her for prostitution. Advertisement 9 Jamie Leigh Jones was abused by grooming gangs in Oldham from age 12 Credit: Glen Minikin 9 Jamie Leigh was 12 years old when she was first raped by a groomer Credit: Glen Minikin 9 Cops published this mugshot of Jamie age 14 - knowing she was a vulnerable child who had reported multiple rapes Credit: GMP The vulnerable teenager, who have been a victim of grooming gangs from the age of 12, was labelled a sex worker, told she was 'out of control' and hauled up in court. Incredibly, Greater Manchester Police also sent her name and photo to be published across local and national media with a quote from a police chief saying: 'We will run young yobs out of town' – despite having at least two reports of rape against Jamie Leigh at the time and knowing she was classed as a vulnerable child at high risk of sexual abuse from grooming gangs. Jamie Leigh was then taken from her family and placed in care, where the abuse got worse and gangs of rapists from Oldham's Pakistani, Kurdish and Bengali communities were given free reign to continue their sickening campaign of grooming and rape until she was 18. She reported four other rapes to Greater Manchester Police from 2011 to 2015 but says 'nothing was ever done' and officers openly 'blamed her' for the sexual assaults. Advertisement Read more on grooming gangs Care home staff turned a "blind eye" to the abuse, sometimes even dropping her off to meet her abusers and buying her a McDonald's so she wouldn't tell anyone. On one occasion, she was gifted a phone by a groomer, and the next day received calls from 60 different Asian males, asking her to come 'chill' and have sex with them. Groomers would even climb through her bedroom window at the care home or pick her up and traffic her to In all, she believes she was raped and sexually abused by over 50 men aged from early 20s to 60s, over a hundred times. Advertisement Most read in The Sun Now aged 28, Jamie Leigh has bravely waived her anonymity to tell her harrowing story – which she hopes will pressure the government to deliver on their promise to hold a national enquiry into Jamie Leigh's horrific tale began when her family moved to a new area of Oldham and, not having a school place for her, the council placed her in a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). National inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal finally ordered by Keir Starmer in another Labour U-turn 'I met a girl there who was 15 years old, three year older than me, and she turned up one day with an older Asian male in the car," she says. 'He bought me cigarettes and gave me money on the first occasion. Advertisement 'The second occasion he actually rang my mum's phone because I didn't have a phone. My mum told him, 'You're a fully grown man, why are you ringing my daughter? You know how old she is'. 'So then the next time that I went out with him he bought me a phone and told me to keep it away from my mum. "He told me he was a news reporter for the local TV news and worked for the Jeremy Kyle show. It was all lies but I believed it at the time and trusted him. 'My mum gave the police his registration plates and everything but nothing happened. Advertisement 'Social services didn't do anything except blame me. They said I was an out-of-control child and that my mum needed to put her foot down. 'At the beginning my abuser was nice to me, he bought me things and then I started going around with other older Asian men with this girl. 'One night I gave my number to one Asian man and then I had around 50, 60 people ringing my phone that I didn't know and adding me on Facebook, all older Asian men. 'They were asking me to come out, chill with them, drink, smoke weed, things like that and have sex." Advertisement 9 She believes police and social services deliberately turned a blind eye to the abuse Credit: Glen Minikin 9 Jamie Leigh lost her trust in authorities after being taken from her family and put into care Credit: Glen Minikin 9 Jamie around age 12 just after she was first raped by a grooming gang member Credit: Glen Minikin Jamie Leigh was raped for the first time at 12. Advertisement 'I had actually jumped out of my abuser's moving car because he wanted to take me to Rochdale and I was scared,' she said. 'A few weeks after, he spoke to me and it started being really nice again. So I went out with him, he plied me with alcohol and raped me in his car." Within a year Jamie Leigh, who was still living at home, was being trafficked to other men. 'There was one house, when I was about 13 years old, and there was an older Asian male there. He was talking to me like I was a child - because I was a child. But he was telling me that I'd make his uncle's birthday if I were to have sex with his uncle and he'd give me money for it. Advertisement 'To be honest I was raped so many times it's hard to remember exactly how many. I know I was gang raped twice. 'I was passed around for years between older Asian men, sexually abused, sexually exploited, filled with alcohol, filled with drugs.' 'Nobody cared' Jamie Leigh's worried friends tried to intervene, telling her mum, police and social services about what was happening to her – but no action was taken against any of the men. Instead, authorities began to target Jamie Leigh. Advertisement 'They told my mum that I was a danger to my little brother and I couldn't live there anymore otherwise he'd be put in care, so I had to move out and then I was put into care,' she says. 'One day my abusers filled me with drink and I actually kicked off with the police. So I was arrested. 'Before that court date actually took place, police walked around the corner into this industrial estate and caught an illegal immigrant rapist raping me. 'I had my pants down my ankles. He was laying on top of me. His pants were down. Advertisement 'I stood up with one boot in my hand and they actually put me in handcuffs and took me to the police car, arrested me for prostitution and took me to the police station. To be honest I was raped so many times it's hard to remember exactly how many. Jamie Leigh Jones 'He wasn't arrested at the time, but they arrested me for prostitution because he told them that I took money off him, which I didn't. 'At the time I thought nothing was done to him but I found out from officers recently that he was actually an illegal immigrant and they sent him to the deportation centre. Then he was let out of the deportation centre and they have no idea where he is now. 'I was sent to court and the judge questioned social services for over an hour, telling them that I was not a danger to the public, but the public was a danger to me and that he was going to adjourn it while they sorted something out for my safety. He put me in a secure children's prison. Advertisement 'After I got to the secure unit, the judge forced them to put me into a care home. 'The judge was trying to help me, but it just got even worse. "There were men coming to the care home outside, picking us up, dropping us off every day and every night. Nobody cared.' 9 Jamie was passed around for years as a teenager Credit: Glen Minikin Advertisement Drugged and raped Jamie Leigh was plied with drugs and alcohol for years by her abusers who would pass her around to be raped, often by multiple men in one day. 'I think on a few occasions I was drugged. I lost loads of weight, I was like a rake and I looked poorly,' she says 'There was one occasion where I was in a flat and I was that drunk, I'd laid down and my head was spinning, then loads of different men were coming in the room having sex with me. 'They were all horrible to me they would spit on me and stuff. Advertisement I was passed around for years between older Asian men, sexually abused, sexually exploited, filled with alcohol, filled with drugs. Jamie Leigh Jones 'At first I thought they were my friends. I thought they cared about me and they were giving me loads of things that I never had. 'And then it turned and it started being horrible and nasty. They were telling me to bring other girls out, younger girls. I never did. 'But I know one of my friends did and she was arrested for being a perpetrator while none of the men were arrested. She was 15. 'I was groomed into just walking around the area and Asian men would just pull over and say 'Right, you coming out? You coming to chill? You coming for a drink? And I get in the car and I'd end up being raped. Advertisement 'I don't know why I got in the cars, it was just normalised at the time. I didn't know any better. I had no self esteem. 'The police, the council, social services didn't seem to see a problem with it then. 'I was so young when it started, your brain's a sponge." Jamie began to rely on alcohol, supplied by her abusers, to make her feel like she "wasn't really there." Advertisement 'A lot of times I was scared and that's why I drank so fast and I drank straight alcohol deliberately to block it out. 'When you've been raped you become scared to say no. 'Once that has happened for the first time, from that moment, you're just quiet, because you know they're going to take it anyway.' 'High risk of murder' Jamie Leigh was placed in three different care homes in Oldham, Rivendell House, and Fraser Street Children's home and Porter Street Supported Living. Advertisement 'There were always cars outside the care homes waiting for us,' she said. 'Staff knew I was high risk. They had me at high risk of being murdered but they still never tried to stop us getting into the cars. 'They did absolutely nothing. They knew what was going on. It wasn't just me, there were numerous girls and they just kept coming back absolutely obliterated after being abused. 'By the time I was 15, I had 152 missing episodes my records say. Advertisement 'But the care home staff would act like it was normal. The only time they ever did anything about it was when one of my care workers turned around and said, I needed to get an STI check because I'll end up with 'fanny rot' if I don't. 'Those were the actual words she said. 'There was an Asian man who worked at one of the care homes and he was always saying inappropriate things to the girls. 'He'd say: 'Why do you hang around with Bengalis? Why don't you hang around with us Pakistanis? Advertisement 'Sometimes he'd give us a lift to places and say, 'I shouldn't be dropping you off in Pakistani areas or Bengali areas. I shouldn't be doing this. So make sure you don't tell anyone. Here I'll buy you a McDonald's' 'Then he'd say, 'Don't tell any of the other girls' and then he'd sneak in your room to take your rubbish so no one would see it. 'He also had one of his nephews who was in his twenties come and smoke weed and offer it to the kids in the care home." 9 Jamie Leigh with her mum Louise Hopwood Credit: Glen Minikin Advertisement 9 Jamie Leigh with her mum as a teen Credit: Glen Minikin Shocking files Redacted social services documents from Jamie Leigh's file, which she has shared with The Sun, show that she was the subject of Child Sexual Exploitation Strategy and Review Meetings from as early as 2010, when she would have been aged 13. One notes shockingly: 'Although Jamie is 13, she does look older.' It adds: 'A number of Jamie's friends are already known to the [redacted] service and Jamie is aware of this, however she still chooses to place herself at risk.' Advertisement A social services form, filled out for Jamie in 2013, titled Hazard: Child Sexual Exploitation, describes Jamie at 'high' risk of sexual exploitation with the frequency listed as 'daily'. The 'risks' she faced are listed as sexual abuse, absconding, criminal record, harm to public, pregnancy and STIs and 'allegations'. Ninth on the list is 'risk of serious injury or death'. Despite the high risk of death, Jamie Leigh's 'action plan' written down by staff is woefully inadequate – including plans to get her to fill out a 'safe and well questionnaire' on her return from missing episodes. Advertisement It also states: 'Staff to discourage inappropriate friendships' – showing staff saw the older Asian men who abused her as the teen's 'friends'. 'They did nothing at the care homes, I noticed in Porter Street a few years later, which when I was 16, they started actually reporting stuff but still nothing happened to stop it,' Jamie Leigh says. 'It was there that older Asian men kept climbing into my flat window and that is recorded in my notes. Staff knew I was high risk. They had me at high risk of being murdered but they still never tried to stop us getting into the cars. Jamie Leigh Jones 'I don't know why, when I was classed as at risk they still kept putting me in these care homes where there were Asian men picking up girls. Putting all these girls that are at risk together, just causes more problems. Advertisement 'There were at least 20 girls I knew in the care homes who were being exploited.' According to Jamie Leigh's police records, which she requested, she reported rapes in 2011, 2012 and 2015. She also recalls reporting a rape at the age of 12 but no records can be found. 'Throughout that time they didn't do anything, nothing ever came of the reports I made,' Jamie Leigh said. Advertisement 'I never did a rape kit. They took my knickers from the gang rape – but nothing ever came of that. "I stopped reporting things. It just became me versus the world." Search for answers Jamie Leigh said she moved out of Oldham as soon as she turned 18. 'It was the only way to stop it,' she says. "I struggled to piece my life together, and to be honest I'm still struggling now. Advertisement 'I want answers. I think every survivor deserves answers.' Oldham Council and GMP have admitted failing Jamie Leigh, who was featured anonymously in an independent inquiry into child sex abuse in Oldham in 2022, and apologised to her. Jamie Leigh has also given evidence to Operation Sherwood, an active investigation into historic child sex abuse in Oldham. So far, 12 arrests have been made as part of the investigation but no one has yet been charged. Advertisement But to Jamie Leigh, it's too little, too late. 'I've been left with complex PTSD. I've suffered from panic attacks, nightmares. I rarely leave the house," she said. 'And I think my problems stem not just from the abuse suffered, but also the way that the services handled it and they're still handling it to this day. 'It's become this whole debate about racism when in reality, that doesn't matter. What matters is that the females and the girls that have been through these horrific things get heard. Advertisement 'I feel like people need to accept the full failings and stop denying the facts of what's happened. We can't make changes in the future if we don't go back and look into every single mistake that's happened in the past. 'Survivors should not have to be fighting now.' Jamie Leigh is now studying to be a counsellor at Open University and wants to help other survivors of abuse. Police response to Jamie's story A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police gave this statement to The Sun: 'We have fully accepted our past failings in tackling this horrific abuse and are working with a number of survivors, who have placed their faith in the GMP of today and are supporting our active retrospective investigations. 'These are long and complex investigations, but our commitment is unwavering, and we will not allow passage of time to be a hindrance. 'HMICFRS and Ofsted published a report last week highlighting significant improvements we have made in how we protect children, respond to abuse, and investigate non-recent cases of CSE. 'GMP remains focused on listening to survivors and advancing our effective practice still further. We owe it both to those abused in the past and to our children today to sustain this most pressing of priorities, and we continue to give our commitment to do just that. 'We are actively investigating and supporting Jamie as we progress her case. While we understand that the impact of her past experience cannot be undone, we are confident that victims' experiences today would be significantly improved compared to those of previous years." And she is urging other survivors and whistle blowers to come forward and share their stories. Advertisement 'I think we deserve answers after everything we've been through, after years of having to fight for what's right,' she said. 'And it's still happening. I'm getting people messaging me saying they don't know where to turn, they're not getting the right support. Children are still being blamed for being raped. 'People message me telling me it's happening to the daughters or their sister. 'One of the worst things about a woman being raped and suffering abuse like this is not being believed. Advertisement 'So when services that are supposed to help are not doing anything to help them, it's wrong. It's worse because these people should know better than abusers and rapists and child molesters. I've been left with complex PTSD. I've suffered from panic attacks, nightmares. I rarely leave the house. Jamie Leigh Jones 'Some of these people should be jailed as well because they've enabled this to happen to so many girls for so long. 'I'd love to see the officers that put me in handcuffs that day go down for a long time. 'Or at the very least be retrained because shouldn't be in the jobs if you stand with those beliefs. Advertisement 'They've been allowed to do it, while we've been as survivors, blamed for what we've been through for decades. 'It can really mess survivors and rape victims heads' up, especially children, when you say 'We're not doing anything about it? You go out and get raped. It's normal. That's your lifestyle. You're never going to amount to nothing.' 'It's wrong. It'd be different if it was their children. And I said that years ago to a police officer while it was happening. I said, 'Would you treat your children like this?' 'He said, 'My children wouldn't behave in such a way'. Advertisement Oldham Council's response to Jamie's story Oldham Council Leader, Cllr Arooj Shah said: "I want to commend Jamie Leigh for her extraordinary courage in speaking out and sharing her story. Her bravery is not only deeply moving but plays a vital role in ensuring that survivors are heard, and that real change continues to happen. "Across the country, councils, the police, and other agencies failed those affected by child sexual exploitation in the past. Oldham was no exception and we apologise again to survivors and their families. "We also recognise that these horrific crimes have not disappeared, but we are more determined than ever to root out those who abuse and exploit children. We will not rest until every child is safe and those responsible are held fully to account. "Oldham is absolutely committed to learning from the past. Thanks in no small part to the tenacity of survivors like Jamie Leigh, we are leading the way in tackling child sexual exploitation, putting survivors at the heart of our efforts, and doing everything in our power to ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated. "We welcome both local and national inquiries, and we are clear that survivors must be at the centre of this process. Their voices are essential to building a safer future for every child." 'I feel like all survivors need a massive apology from Keir Starmer for starters, for the system, for being ignored and now for having to fight for what's right. 'I want the truth to come out because we've spent years of not being believed and that's horrible. I want people to be questioned and I want answers.' In response to Jamie's story, Greater Manchester Police said it had "fully accepted our past failings in tackling this horrific abuse" and it was "actively investigating" the case. Oldham Council added: "Oldham is absolutely committed to learning from the past. Thanks in no small part to the tenacity of survivors like Jamie-Leigh, we are leading the way in tackling child sexual exploitation, putting survivors at the heart of our efforts, and doing everything in our power to ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated." Advertisement
