By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, May 15: The High Court here struck out the prosecution’s appeal against the Sessions Court’s decision to discharge and acquitt a teacher on four counts of committing physical sexual assault and one count of gross indecency against a 12-year-old male student in 2019.
High Court Judge Datuk Zaleha Rose Pandin issued the order after Deputy Public Prosecutor Aida Nurdiana Che Kamarulzaman informed the Court that the prosecution has instructions to withdraw its appeal after considering the grounds of decision of the Sessions Court.
On August 29, 2022, Sessions Court Judge Dayang Ellyn Narisa Abang Ahmad discharged and acquitted the 48-year-old accused from all five charges without calling for his defence, after ruling that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused.
The justice had found among others, that the child victim contradicted himself on many material points during the trial and that his credibility is questioned when he made a deliberate attempt to amend his own evidence.
She also held that there was confusion as to the location specified in the charge sheets, which was further contradicted by the inconsistent evidence by the investigating officer.
Also, the court found that the evidence by the prosecution’s witnesses did not support the child victim’s case but was mere reiteration of what the child victim told them and as such, the judge found that it was unsafe to act on the uncorroborated evidence of the child victim.
Three of the charges were related to the accused being charged with sexually assaulting a boy who was 12-years-old at the time, by kissing his lips, hugging him, touching his body, kissing his forehead and sucking his private part for sexual purposes, at a male toilet of a school in Jalan Astana, between April 2019 to July 2019.
For these three charges, the accused was charged under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and punishable under Section 14 of the same Act, which carries a maximum imprisonment term of 20 years and with whipping, upon conviction.
He was also charged with sexually assaulting the same victim by asking the victim to suck his private part at a male toilet of a school and a storeroom of the school in Jalan Astana, around August 2019.
He was charged under Section 14(b) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and punishable under Section 14 of the same Act, which carries a maximum imprisonment term of 20 years and with whipping, upon conviction.
For the fifth charge, the accused was charged with asking the victim to insert his private part into the accused’s anus, at the storeroom of a school in Jalan Astana, between April to July 2019.
He was charged under Section 377E of the Penal Code, which carries between 3 to 5 years imprisonment and with whipping, upon conviction.
The prosecution called six witnesses.
The accused was represented by counsels Shankar Ram, Russell Lim and Yu Ying Ying. — DayakDaily
