The Bangladeshi national pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl at a Kuala Lumpur theme park in February.
Judge Surita Budin imposed the sentence on Md Israful Alam, 30, a Bangladeshi national, and ordered him to serve the jail term from the date of his arrest on Feb 7. He was also ordered to undergo counselling during his imprisonment.
Md Israful was charged with committing the offence against a 13-year-old girl in a theme park’s haunted house at a shopping mall here, at 12.30pm, on Feb 7.
He was charged under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, which provides for a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and caning, upon conviction.
Based on the facts of the case, the victim told her mother that the accused had committed the act while she was walking inside the haunted house.
The victim’s mother lodged a police report and CCTV footage from the location showed the accused committing the offence while standing behind the victim.
During mitigation, deputy public prosecutor Nur Shakila Shariff urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence that would signal any sexual offence against children must be treated seriously in the interest of public welfare.
She said the victim had suffered prolonged trauma from the incident and became fearful of going out and participating in recreational activities.
Lawyer Kelvin Sindhu, representing Md Israful, appealed for a lighter sentence, arguing that his client has a wife and a seven-year-old child to take care of and urged the court to consider his guilty plea as a mitigating factor. - FMT
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