Sexual assault: Man sentenced to 26 years in jail, whipping

SIBU (Oct 8): The Sessions Court here today sentenced a man to 26-year imprisonment and 23 strokes of the cane on seven charges of physical sexual assault, two charges of rape and one charge each of unnatural sex and molest, against his three underage nieces.

Judge Musyiri Peet imposed the sentence on the 40-year-old man after considering the facts of the case, the public interest and the accused’s guilty plea and mitigation.

In mitigation, the accused appealed for leniency on grounds that he had to take care of his both ageing parents as well as his ill wife.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Amirul Hakim Mohamad Zamri requested for appropriate and deterrent sentences to be imposed, in view of public interest.

For seven charges of physical sexual assault, the man committed the offences against two underage girls between August 2017 and Sept 7 this year.

For these offences, he was charged under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offenses Against Children Act 2017 and punishable under Section 14 of the same Act.

He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and two strokes for each charge.

The accused also faced a charge under Section 354 of the Penal Code for assault with intent to outrage modesty of one of the victims, back in 2016.

For this charge, he was sentenced to five years in jail.

The man also faced two charges of rape under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code as well as one charge of unnatural sex under Section 377B of the Penal Code, against another underage victim between 2016 and January 2018.

For the offence framed under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code, he was sentenced to 10 years and three strokes of whipping for each charge.

For the charge under Section 377B of the Penal Code, he received 10 years in prison and three strokes of whipping.

All these offences were committed by the accused at a house in Teku here.

The man, who was unrepresented by a lawyer, was ordered to serve the prison sentence starting from the date of his arrest on Sept 22.