Govt must have tools to nab child sex offenders, says MP

 

Alladin Lanim, who has been jailed for sexually abusing children in Sarawak, had been operating for over a decade without Malaysian police knowing about it. (Freepik pic)

PETALING JAYA: The government needs to invest in technology, equipment, training and expertise to nab child sex offenders, says Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto.

In a statement today, she noted how deputy communications and multimedia minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin told Parliament last August that Malaysian airports do not have the technology to scan for child pornography because there was a lack of funding.

“The 2021 budget for the communications and multimedia ministry did not have any additional budget specifically for an investment of this scale that will benefit all children in Malaysia,” she said.

“When a country like Malaysia prioritises and invests in technology to combat all forms of violence against children – including sexual violence – it sends a strong message to our Asean counterparts and the world that the country is serious in this warfare against sexual predators,” she said.

Kasthuri was commenting on a two-year investigation by Australian authorities that led to the arrest of Alladin Lanim, 40, who was charged in Kuching on Aug 17 with sexually abusing dozens of children in the state.

He pleaded guilty to 18 charges and was sentenced to a total of 48 years in prison and 15 strokes of the cane.

Kasthuri said Alladin’s arrest was made possible by the monitoring and observation of his movements on the dark web by the Australian enforcement team but he had managed to fly under the radar of Malaysian police for over a decade. He had been sharing child abuse material on the web since 2007.

Meanwhile, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said he hoped that Alladin’s arrest would serve as a “wake up call” for the government to take crimes related to children seriously and strengthen the federal police’s specialised Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division.

“This includes funding to equip law enforcement officers with the necessary technical and training expertise to crack down on child sexual abuse and exploitation,” he said yesterday.

In 2016, another child predator Richard Huckle had been arrested in London, also after a tip-off by Australian authorities, for child abuse and sex offences committed in Malaysia. He was given 25 life sentences but was later found murdered in his cell. - FMT