Kota Kinabalu: A 44-year-old man, who committed physical sexual harassment against his two daughters, was sentenced to a total of 60 years’ jail and ordered to get eight strokes of the cane.
Sessions Court Judge Azreena Aziz meted out the sentence to the man who changed his plea and admitted to four charges against him on Tuesday.
On the first and second counts, the man was jailed 12 years each for committing the offence against his 15-year-old daughter by putting his private parts on the girl’s private parts in March and at the end of July 2021 at a house in Beaufort, respectively.
On the third count, he was jailed another 13 years for repeating the same offence by putting his private parts on the private part of the same girl as well as putting his finger into her private parts on Nov 12, 2022, at the same place.
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Due to their relationship, he received an additional punishment of two years’ jail plus two strokes of the cane for the first, second and third but the fourth, the court handed three years additional jail punishment plus two strokes of the cane.
The court ordered the sentence of the first to three counts to be run concurrently but consecutively with the fourth count, which means the man needed to serve 32 years in prison.
The offence under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and whipping, on conviction.
The court also ordered the man to undergo a rehabilitative programme during his detention pursuant to Section 26 of Sexual Offences Against Children Act and to be placed under police supervision for two years after serving his sentence.
During mitigation, counsel P.J Perira who represented the man, told the court that the man has six children to look after and that he was remorseful.
Perira told the court that the man was a first-time offender and asked for the jail term to be served concurrently.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Dk Afiqah Alya Ak Johari urged for a heavy punishment and for the jail sentence to be run consecutively because all the charges were committed in different dates and times.
She also urged the court to take into consideration that the two victims were the man’s daughters whom he should protect.
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