By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, Oct 21: The Sessions Court here has sentenced a counselling teacher of a science college in Jalan Sultan Tengah to 90 years’ imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane for sexually assaulting his male students, aged between 14 and 16 in 2018.
Shahbudin Beddu, 32, from Sabah, was charged with six charges under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children 2017 and punishable under Section 14 of the same act and to be read together with Section 16 of the same act for physically sexually assaulting 17 of the college’s male students at the college’s hostel, teacher’s quarters and male dorm, between January and May 2018.
Sessions Court Judge Afidah Abdul Rahman ruled that the accused had failed to prove his defence.
According to the judge, one of the excuses used by the accused was that he was not at the scene as alleged by the victims. However, he had no alibi to show to the court to prove his defence.
Shahbudin was subsequently sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and four strokes of the cane for each charge, with the imprisonment term to run consecutively.
According to the charges, the accused was found touching a boy’s private parts and sexually assaulting the victims at the college’s hostel, teacher’s quarters and male dorm between March 2018 to May 2018.
According to the brief facts of the case, the accused, who was the counselling teacher of the school, had gained the trust of the victims but had then sexually harassed them in various ways, such as kissing them and touching their private parts.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohamad Aiman Mutallib Mohamad Shariff prosecuted while the accused was represented by counsel Hani Iryani Bonny.
The prosecution had called 18 witnesses to testify for the case while the defence had called 10 witnesses. — DayakDaily
