Photo for illustration purposes only.
SIBU (May 18): The Sessions Court here yesterday sentenced a 21-year-old man to five years’ imprisonment and two strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to sodomising his underage niece.
Judge Marutin Pagan meted out the sentence under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, and ordered the jail term to run from July 25, 2020 – the date the accused was arrested.
The accused is currently serving a five-year jail sentence after he was convicted by the same court on Oct 8 last year, for committing the same offence against the girl’s brother.
According to the facts of the case, the victim, an orphan, had on July 24 last year told a staff at the orphanage she was staying at that she had been sodomised by her uncle at her grandmother’s house in March the same year.
The staff then informed the orphanage manager who proceeded to lodge a police report.
Police investigation revealed that the victim and her brother were sent to the orphanage by their grandmother after their mother had passed away.
The siblings would stay at their grandmother’s house during the school holidays.