PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya has overturned a decision made by the High Court and reinstated a 10-year prison sentence for a trader found guilty of physically sexually assaulting his 12-year-old stepdaughter. In addition to the prison term, the 40-year-old man will also receive four strokes of the cane. The decision was made by a three-man bench consisting of Justices Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli, and Datuk SM Komathy Suppiah, who granted the prosecution’s appeal and reinstated the original sentence passed by the Sessions Court.
The prosecution had appealed against a previous ruling by the High Court, which had reduced the man’s prison sentence from 10 years to seven. Justice Vazeer stated that the High Court had erred in lowering the sentence, emphasizing that the seven-year term was too lenient. He stressed the importance of considering the relationship between the victim and the offender when determining the appropriate sentence and noted that a 10-year prison term aligns with recent trends in sentencing for such cases.
The trader had pleaded guilty on July 15, 2021, to two counts of physically sexually assaulting the Year Six student, with incidents occurring on April 17 and May 9 of the same year at a house in Banting, Selangor. The Sessions Court originally sentenced him to 10 years in prison for each count, with two strokes of the cane accompanying each sentence. The sentences were to be served concurrently.
The charges were framed under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and whipping upon conviction. However, on June 28, last year, the High Court allowed the man’s appeal and reduced the jail term to seven years, while maintaining the whipping sentence. Dissatisfied with the reduction, the prosecution filed an appeal against the decision.
The prosecution argued that the High Court disregarded Section 16(1) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, which imposes additional punishment on individuals in a position of trust with the child. According to this section, such individuals can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and a minimum of two strokes of the cane. Deputy public prosecutor P. Sarulatha raised this argument before the Court of Appeal. The man’s lawyer, Muhamad Izwan Ishak from the National Legal Aid Foundation, countered by urging the court to uphold the reduced jail term and cited a case where a person facing similar charges received an eight-year prison sentence from the Ipoh High Court.
The Court of Appeal ultimately sided with the prosecution and ruled in favor of restoring the original 10-year prison sentence, along with the four strokes of the cane. The trader will now serve his full sentence according to the initial decision of the Sessions Court.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
