KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here yesterday dismissed an application by a local man for his 18-year jail sentence for inserting a blunt and hard object into stepdaughter’s private parts to run concurrently with the jail sentences of his two other criminal offences involving the same girl.
Justice Ravinthran N. Paramaguru however ordered the 18 years’ jail sentence imposed by the Sessions Court on the 34-year-old appellant to run from July 4, this year.
He made the decision after hearing submissions from the appellant who was unrepresented and reply from deputy public prosecutor Uma Devi Balasubramaniam.
The Sessions Court had on July 4 sentenced the appellant to 18 years’ jail after the latter pleaded guilty to a charge of inserting a blunt and hard object into the girl’s private parts by the riverside at a village in Kionsom about 9.30am on March 23, this year
Apart from the custodial sentence, the lower court also ordered the appellant to be whipped six times.
He was convicted under Section 377CA of the Penal Code which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and is also liable to whipping upon conviction.
The two other sentences that the appellant is currently serving are 20 years’ jail and 15 strokes of the cane for committing incest with the girl and another 13 years’ jail for attempted murder of the same girl.
The sentences were imposed by another High Court judge after the prosecution succeeded in their appeal to increase the previous jail terms imposed by the lower court for both offences.
The High Court ordered the custodial sentences to run consecutively from the appellant’s date of arrest on March 23, this year.