Father convicted of sexually assaulting daughters gets sentence reduced

PUTRAJAYA - The Court of Appeal here today reduced the 34-year prison sentence of a man convicted of physical sexual assault of his three young daughters to 26 years.

The three-judge panel led by Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, however, upheld the 10 strokes of caning initially imposed by the Sessions Court on the 45-year-old father of six.

The panel, which included judges Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, dismissed the man’s appeal against his conviction but granted his appeal for a sentence reduction.

Justice Che Mohd Ruzima said the man failed to adduce any errors in the Sessions Court’s findings, and the High Court had also affirmed the lower court’s decision.

In 2022, the former driver was found guilty by the Sessions Court on five counts of sexually assaulting his daughters, 12, 10, and five, in a house in Taman Kledang, Perak on June 4, 2019, May 4, 2019, and May 7, 2019, respectively.

He faced two counts of sexually assaulting his 12-year-old, two counts of similar offenses against his 10-year-old, and one count of sexually assaulting his five-year-old.

He was sentenced to a total of 34 years in prison with 10 strokes of the cane for all the offences, and in March last year, the High Court affirmed both his conviction and sentence.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison with two strokes of the cane for each count involving his older daughters and 10 years imprisonment with two strokes of the cane for the offence against his five-year-old daughter.

Today, the Court of Appeal reduced the initial eight-year jail term to six years and lowered the 10-year imprisonment to eight, while upholding the caning.

Deputy public prosecutor Atiqah Abdul Karim @ Husaini appeared for the prosecution, while the man was represented by lawyer Kathan Maruthamuthu from the National Legal Aid Foundation. - BERNAMA