Kota Kinabalu: A 42-year-old man was jailed a total of 14 years’ jail plus four strokes of the cane for two counts of sexual harassment against his stepdaughter.
Sessions Court Judge Ummu Khaltom Abd Samad meted out the sentence to the man after ruling that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt against the man, Tuesday.
The man was jailed five years plus two strokes of the cane for each charge.
He committed the offences by fondling the 13-year-old girl’s breasts at 3.30pm on July 2 and at 1am on July 3, 2019 at a house in a village in Ranau.
The offence under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 provides for a jail term of up to 20 years, and whipping, on conviction.
Due to the relationship between the man and the alleged victim, the court handed another additional punishment of two years for each charge.
The court ordered the man to serve the jail sentence concurrently from the date of his arrest on July 10, 2019 which means the man will only serve seven years.
The man was also ordered to undergo counselling as well as to be placed under police supervision for two years after serving the jail sentence. The court granted the man’s application for a stay of execution of the whipping sentence.
Six prosecution witnesses were called during the hearing while the defence only called the man as the sole witness.
During mitigation, counsel Mohd Ari Nadzrah Abd Rahman who represented the man, asked for leniency and for the sentence to be served concurrently from the date of his arrest.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Fauzi Acho who stood in for DPP Adibah Shaiful Bahri, urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence on the grounds that it was a serious offence.
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