Kota Kinabalu: A former secondary school discipline teacher, who was acquitted from a charge of committing physical sexual assault against his female student, was instead sentenced to two years’ jail and six lashes of the cane for molesting the victim.
The Court of Appeal’s three-member bench, chaired by Judge Datuk Supang Lian, Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong, allowed the prosecution as respondent’s appeal against Mohd Faiz Ismail’s acquittal and set aside the High Court’s order of acquitting and discharging him of the charge.
The Court substituted Faiz’s conviction to Section 354 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to two years imprisonment and six strokes of the cane.
Faiz, 35, was on March 18, 2022 found guilty by the Sessions Court in Sandakan and was sentenced to seven years jail and a stroke of the cane for committing the offence against the 17 years 11 months old student by fondling her breasts in a room of a secondary school in Sandakan, at 7am, on July 2019.
The charge under Section 14 (a) of the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017, which carries a jail term of up to 20 years and liability of a fine on conviction, on conviction.
On Feb 2, 2023, the Sandakan High Court set aside Faiz’s conviction and sentence following his appeal against the Sessions Court’s decision.
In allowing the appeal, the Court of Appeal agreed with the High Court’s finding regarding the age of the complainant, noting that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was a child at the time of the incident.
However, the Court found evidence beyond reasonable that Faiz had committed the offence of outraging the modesty of the complainant under Section 354 of Penal Code.
The Court then set aside the High Court’s acquittal and discharge under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2018 and substituted it with the conviction under Section 354 of the Penal Code.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Zander Lim appeared for the prosecution as respondent while Faiz was represented by counsel Hamid Ismail.
