Menggatal man jailed for stealing, wearing woman’s underwear

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Muhammad Rizal

KOTA KINABALU (Aug 18): An unemployed man, who stole a woman’s lingeries including her sleepwear and used them to fullfil his lust, was jailed for 24 months by a Magistrate’s Court here on Thursday.

Magistrate Jessica Ombou Kakayun imposed the sentence on Muhammad Rizal Richard Abdullah, 39, after he pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 379 of the Penal Code.

The indictment provides for a jail term of up to seven years or a fine, or both, upon conviction.

Muhammad admitted to stealing the 44-year-old underwear and sleepwear from clotheslines using a stick at the back veranda of a house in Menggatal on August 8.

The fact of the case stated that on the incident day, the complainant found out that some of her clothes were missing on the clotheslines.

She checked on CCTV and saw the culprit was the accused who stays nearby.

The complainant also found out that the clothes that went missing were her underwear and sleepwear.

She then lodged a police report since this was the sixth time such an incident had happened.

Following the report, police conducted an investigation and based on CCTV footage, the accused took the items using a stick and he was not wearing a shirt when committing the offence.

On August 13, he was arrested and the police had seized several woman’s underwear and sleepwear and the accused was wearing one of the underwear during his arrest.

The complainant identified the seized items were hers which were worth around RM70.

In mitigation, the accused, who was represented by National Legal Aid Foundation counsel Nabila Norsahar, prayed for a lenient sentence saying that he had pleaded guilty which had saved the court’s time.

The counsel also said that the accused regretted with what he had done and promised not to repeat the offence.

Nabila further submitted that the accused, who requested for his jail term to be counted from the date of his arrest, is a divorcee with two kids.

He added that the accused is currently jobless and his family is supporting him financially.

In reply, the prosecution argued that a heavier punishment should be imposed on the accused as he had committed an irresponsible act which in this case involved a woman.

The prosecution further said that this was a public interest case and the accused admitted that he was sane when he committed the offence.

The prosecution submitted that the accused also wore the complainant’s underwear when he was arrested by the police and the purpose of doing this was because he wanted to fulfill his lust.

The prosecution added that the accused’s act had caused huge embarrassment to men.