Sentence for gong maker who molested niece upheld

KOTA KINABALU: The Court of Appeal here yesterday affirmed the sentence imposed by the High Court on a gong maker for molesting his teenage niece.

In a unanimous decision, Justice Datuk Rohana Yusuf, who sat together with Justice Tan Sri Idrus Harun and Justice Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof, dismissed the prosecution’s appeal to have the sentence imposed on the respondent by the Magistrate’s Court restored.

The High Court here had on September 23, 2016 reduced the four years’ imprisonment and three strokes of the cane to three years’ jail plus one stroke of the cane after allowing the 52year-old’s appeal against the sentence but it dismissed his appeal against conviction.

He was convicted under Section 354 of the Penal Code, which provides for a jail term of up to 10 years or with a fine and whipping, upon conviction.

The respondent was sentenced to four years’ jail and three strokes of the rattan by the Magistrate’s Court here after he was found guilty of the offence on January 15.

He had committed the offence in a car by the roadside in Lok Kawi on May 13, 2015.