JOHOR BAHARU: Improvements to legislation on sexual crimes will, among others, allow prosecution to be conducted without the presence of victims in court.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said discussions between relevant agencies under his ministry will be held next week.
There are provisions in the Penal Code on paedophile and other sex crimes, he said.
“(In our prosecution system) both the accused and victim must appear in court to testify,” he told reporters after handing out Ramadan aid to 400 Johor Baharu branch of Welfare Department Aid recipients at the Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat Complex here yesterday.
Asked to comment on British paedophile Richard Huckle, he said due to religion and culture factors, victims feel embarrassed to testify in court.
“Huckle had been doing this for years without anyone coming forward to lodge police reports because it is the culture of our people to put the stigma or shame onto the victims, not the offenders.
“So, whoever the victim is, that person is too shy to deal (testify the case). Maybe there are weaknesses in our system,” he said.
Citing an example, he said the sexual crime prosecution in the United Kingdom does not require the victims to appear in court but instead the prosecution is done based on other evidence.
Nur Jazlan said the improvements could be done by (and saw possibility of) regulating a new Act.
In addition, the government will train officers who are skilled in, for example, ‘dark web’ to increase surveillance on sexual crime-based websites, he said.
Huckle was sentenced to life in prison by a London court after he pleaded guilty to sexually violating 23 children and babies in Malaysia and Cambodia. — Bernama