Kota Kinabalu: A 30-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years and ordered to get two strokes of the cane for raping an underage girl who tried to commit suicide twice because of the rape incident.
Sessions Court Judge Elsie Primus meted out the sentence to Shahreyan Syah Lagayu, after ruling that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt against Shahreyan, on Tuesday.
Shahreyan was found guilty of raping the 16-year-old girl in a car at the Likas Sport Complex, here, between 10pm and 11.59pm on Nov 10, 2019.
He was convicted under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years, and whipping, on conviction.
The court ordered Shahreyan to serve the jail sentence from the date of his arrest on Dec 24, 2019 and to be placed under police supervision for two years after completing his jail sentence.
Before handing down the sentence, the court said it was a serious offence where the accused had raped the victim who was only 16 years old and the offence committed by Shahreyan had destroyed the dignity of the victim.
The court said she had observed Shahreyan’s behaviour during the trial and saw that he was remorseful as well as his family members were always in court to give support.
However, the court considered it was a public interest case and the offence was very serious in nature.
During mitigation, counsel Mohd Fadzil Abd Karim who defended Shahreyan, asked for a lenient sentence to be imposed on his client saying that Shahreyan was remanded since he was arrested as his application for bail was rejected.
Mohd Fadzil said through the period of two years and 11 months under remand had given a lesson to Shahreyan whose marriage had started to falter.
Prior to his arrest, Mohd Fadzil said Shahreyan was taking care of his 60-year-old mother who is also a single mother.
According to Mohd Fadzil, based on the facts of the case, there was no harm or violence committed by Shahreyan against the victim.
He also submitted that it was Shahreyan’s first offence and asked for the sentence to be served from the date of his arrest.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Mas Izzaty Lokman urged the court to impose a severe sentence on Shahreyan on the grounds that the accused had committed a serious and heinous offence.
Mas Izzaty submitted that the incident had caused long lasting trauma to the victim as Shahreyan had destroyed the dignity of the victim. This was proven during the trial where the victim had testified that she tried to commit suicide two times and is currently under medication.
She also informed the court that the trauma suffered by the victim had confirmed by her mother and friend.
According to Mas Izzaty, Shahreyan had taken advantage of the minor who was weak.
She further submitted that a severe punishment should be given as to deter other would-be offenders from committing sexual offence.
Eight prosecution and four defence witnesses were called during the hearing.
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