A Janitor was sentenced to 572 years in jail for sexually abusing 18 children in the student lodging of a religious secondary school in Turkey, national media reported.

Mehmet Sait Guler, started working as a janitor at the school in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman in 2012.

He lived in the accommodation of the school with students between November 2013 and February 2015, reports the Albawaba.

During this period, Guler shared a dormitory with the students - even though this was not allowed according to official regulations – where he sexually abused and raped a number of boys.

In February 2015 he took a number of children to his home and raped them. The court also heard he exposed the children to pornographic material.

The prosecutor demanded a 572-year jail sentence for him on several charges including sexually abusing children, bodily harm and blackmailing.

In another incident earlier this month, a four-year-old girl was raped in Turkey. Amid national outrage over the case, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the “harshest penalties” would be applied in such cases.