School gardener jailed 80 years for rape of pupil

KUCHING: A gardener with a primary school in Bau near here was sentenced to a total of 80 years in prison and 18 strokes of the rattan by the Sessions Court yesterday for committing statutory rape and sex crime against children.

Motis Juwel, 56, from Kampung Opar Bau, who pleaded guilty to all the charges, appeared calm and nodded his head when the sentences were delivered by presiding judge Dayang Ellyn Narisa Abang Ahmad.

Motis, who was not represented by a counsel, said he understood and admitted to all the charges despite arguing that the sexual intercourse between him and the girl was ‘suka sama suka’ (consensual) earlier on.

He committed the offences on the 14-yearold girl on four occasions, between May 2016 and March this year.

The court convicted him on four counts of statutory rape under Section 376(2) of the Penal Code, for which he received 15 years’ jail and three strokes of the rattan each.

He faced two other charges of forcing the girl to have sex with her male classmate while he watched them performing the sexual intercourse.

He was convicted on two counts of sexual crime against children under Section 14( b) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, and received 10 years’ jail and three strokes of whippings for each charge.

All the incidents took place in a storeroom of the primary school.

Judge Dayang Ellyn ordered the custodial sentence to take effect immediately.

In mitigation, Motis told the court he was the sole breadwinner of his family with two children, one studying in university and another at a primary school.

DPP Haresh Prakash urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence against Motis given the nature of the offence.

“He should be the one who takes care of the children but instead he took advantage of the victims, who are classmates.”

In passing sentence, the judge said that the unspeakable mentality of the accused warranted a long period of incarceration away from the society.

“The accused not only abused his position as an employee of the school but had also took advantage on the special student who is OKU (disabled). In view of the alarming rampancy of these offences and to deter other like-minded offenders, I convict him of all the charges against him,” she added.

The case came to light after a cleaner at the school approached the girl after seeing her going in and out from the store often with the accused.

The girl disclosed the incident and a police report was lodged pertaining to the matter.