KUCHING: A teacher walked out a free man yesterday after the High Court here discharged and acquitted him of a charge of outraging the modesty of a pupil.
Judicial Commissioner Celestina Stuel Galid had allowed an appeal by Ahamit Umping against the lower court’s conviction and sentence.
Ahamit was previously convicted by a magistrates’ court for committing the alleged offence on an 11-year-old pupil in the teacher’s room at a school in Petra Jaya here about 10pm on Feb 18, 2016.
His defence counsel Abdul Rahman Mohd Hazmi said yesterday the judge stated that the lower court had failed to hold a preliminary inquiry as required under Section 133A of the Evidence Act.
The preliminary inquiry must be conducted for the court to determine the level of intelligence of the child witness.
The judge held that the victim was a child as she was only 11 years old at the time of her giving evidence.
She also noted that there was nothing stated in the notes of proceeding to support the magistrate’s ground of judgment that such inquiry had been conducted, Abdul Rahman said.
Celestina therefore ruled that the conviction was not safe, hence Ahamit was discharged and acquitted. She also dismissed the prosecution’s cross appeal against leniency of the sentence.