Court upholds conviction of former DID labourer

The Court of Appeal has upheld the one-year jail sentence imposed on a 72-year-old man for outraging the modesty of his neighbour’s daughter.

A three-member panel comprising Justices Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Datuk P. Ravithran and Datuk Wira Ahmad Nasfy Yasin dismissed the appeal by Md Ramli Md Nurdin, a former labourer with the Drainage and Irrigation Department.

Justice Yaacob, who led the panel, held that there was no merit in his appeal to warrant intervention.

He affirmed Md Ramli’s conviction and jail sentence imposed by the High Court.

Md Ramli was found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail and also fined RM3,500, in default six months’ jail, by a Magistrate’s Court for outraging the modesty of the girl, who was then 10, in a house in Taiping, Perak, at 5.30pm on June 14, 2015.

The High Court upheld his conviction for the offence and maintained the jail sentence but set aside the fine.

His lawyer Kathan Maruthamuthu argued that Md Ramli’s action was merely tapping on the shoulder of the girl and advising her to study hard without any intention to outrage her modesty.

He said that tapping his hand on the victim’s shoulder should not be seen as tantamount to outraging her modesty.

Kathan urged the court to set aside Md Ramli’s conviction, even though his client had completed his one-year jail sentence and was already released from prison early this year.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Zain Ibrahim submitted that the High Court had made a finding of facts that the complainant, who is the girl’s father, had clearly seen what happened. — Bernama