Child sexual victims can testify in special court
‘Only the judge can interact with them without further trauma’
PETALING JAYA: Child sexual victims would be less fearful and traumatised while relating their ordeal in the newly formed Special Criminal Court, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim.
“Previously, many cases were stalled because the victims were too traumatised to testify against their perpetrators, who were inside the same court room with them.
“At present, the child sexual victim will be in a separate place.
“Only the judge can interact with the victim as we do not want to further traumatise the child,” she said in a radio interview in conjunction with World Population Day 2017 yesterday.
The special court for child sexual crimes convened for the first time and five cases were brought before it last week.
The court is an important component in line with the implementation of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The new court was borne out of almost a year of campaigning by The Star’s R.AGE team, starting with its awardwinning Predator In My Phone undercover investigations (fb.com/ragepmp) of child sex predators, all the way to efforts in lobbying the MPs.
The Star successfully lobbied over 115 Members of Parliament to pledge their support for new laws against child sexual crimes.
The effort came to fruition with the passing of the Sexual Offences Against Children Bill by the Dewan Rakyat in April.
Fiftysix existing cases under the Penal Code from the Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya Sessions Courts will be transferred to the new court, which is located at the Palace of Justice here.
Rohani said that in many instances in the past, there was a backlog of cases of child sexual crimes in the court.
“There are a lot of backlog cases but when we have the special court, it is more focused.
“In one case, the proceedings took more than three years, and the child had already become a teenager.
“At that point, he was too embarrassed to testify, so the case did not go anywhere,” added Rohani.
Child psychologist Datuk Dr Chiam Heng Keng lauded the formation of the court, saying that it was a positive move made by the Government to protect child victims as they do not have to face the perpetrators or lawyers.
“It will be less traumatising for them. The lawyer, prosecutors and others can only see the proceedings but the child cannot see them – like a oneway mirror via video,” he said.