Keningau couple jailed for hurting children

KENINGAU: A married couple were jailed by the Sessions Court here on Wednesday after they pleaded guilty to causing hurt to their five-year-old and 13-yearold children.

The 36-year-old woman was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison, while the man, 27, received 36 months in prison. Keningau OCPD Superintenent Yampil Garai said the man, who faced two charges for voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Penal Code, was sentenced to 10 months in jail with a RM2,000 fine, in default, six months’ jail for each of the charges.

“He did not pay the fine,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

The woman was sentenced to a two-year jail term respectively for the two charges under Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon and a RM10,000 fine, in default a year’s jail.

She also received the same sentence as her husband for the one offence under Section 323 and did not pay her fines.

The court ordered the sentence to run consecutively.

Earlier, the court heard that the couple had caused hurt to two children under their care between March 24 and March 30, this year.

They had committed the offence between 4pm and 4.10pm in a rented room in the Keningau township area.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Euginie Meredith Gilbert prosecuted while Sessions Court judge Flavian Edward Henry presided.

The couple had pleaded guilty on Tuesday and their next mention date was supposed to be on May 17, but brought forward to Wednesday after the court received all the documents and reports it needed from the hospital.

Yampil had said earlier that the teenager was the woman’s stepson from her previous marriage, while the younger boy was adopted by the couple.