Baram man gets 12 years in jail, four strokes for sexually assaulting daughter

MIRI (Jan 23): The Sessions Court here today sentenced a man to 12 years in jail and four strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually assaulting his underage daughter.

The court also ordered for the 37-year-old man from Baram to undergo counselling while in jail and to be placed under police supervision for two years upon completion of his jail term.

Judge Azreena Aziz meted out the sentence against the man after examining several aspects, including his guilty plea and appeal, the facts of the case, the seriousness of the offence committed and taking into account the public interest.

The man was charged under Section 14 (a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (Act 792), punishable under the same section of the same Act, and read together with Section 16(1) of the same act which carries a jail term of up to 20 years and whipping.

For each of the offences, the man was sentenced to 12 years in jail and two strokes of the cane. The court ordered both sentences to run concurrently starting today.

Based on the facts of the case, the man had sexually assaulted his then seven-year-old daughter by touching her breast for sexual purposes at a farm in Baram at around 7am in March 2022.

He committed the same offence again by rubbing his penis on her buttocks for sexual purposes in a room of a longhouse in Baram at around 8pm in the same month.

Deputy public prosecutor Muhamad Ali Hussain prosecuted the case while the accused was unrepresented by a counsel.