Kota Kinabalu: The Court of Appeal on Tuesday restored the imprisonment sentence of five years and one stroke of the cane on a 42-year-old e-hailing driver for committing sexual abuse against a 15-year-old boy, three years ago.
A three-member bench appellate court led by Justice Datuk Ravinthran N. Paramaguru allowed the appeal by Marto Basinau after hearing his appeal and argument by the prosecution as the respondent.
Marto was appealing against the sentence of 10 years’ jail and two lashes of the cane imposed by the High Court here on March 18, 2021 following an appeal by the prosecution against the Sessions Court’s decision to impose a five-year imprisonment and one stroke of the cane on him a year before.
Marto on July 15, 2020 was sentenced by the lower court after pleading guilty to committing the offence against the secondary school student by touching his private part at 5.15am on Feb 7, 2020 while he was inside Marto’s vehicle on their way to the boy’s school.
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.
In Tuesday’s proceedings, the appellate court set aside the High Court’s decision and restored the Sessions Court decision to impose the five years’ jail from the date of his conviction on July 15, 2020 and one stroke of the cane.
Counsel Ian Cham representing Marto, submitted among others, that the High Court judge misdirected himself by assuming the victim was a female and that the Sessions Court was correct in meting out the five years’ jail and one stroke of the cane.
Cham appealed for the sentence by the Sessions Court to be reinstated.
Ravinthran, who sat with Justices Datuk Azimah Omar and Datuk Lim Chong Fong, held among others, that the ground of interfering of the High Court in respect of the sentence imposed by the Sessions Court was made on the wrong premise that the victim in the present case was a female.
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