Gubit (right) with his counsel Ram.
KOTA KINABALU: A palm oil fruit collector was jailed nine years by the Sessions Court here on Thursday for firing a shot using a bakakuk (handmade gun) at his little son last year.
Judge Elsie Primus imposed the sentence on Gubit Kuwou, 58, after he pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 307 of the Penal Code.
The indictment carries a jail term of up to 20 years, upon conviction.
Gubit was arrested for releasing the shot which had caused injuries on his six-year-old son’s waist and thigh at an oil palm plantation in Kota Marudu on October 18, 2020.
The facts of the case stated that before the incident, the accused had tried to persuade the victim’s mother, who was his former wife, to reconcile but was rejected.
He then held the bakakuk and pointed to his ex-wife.
The victim was with his mother at that time as the accused, his ex-wife and his son had just returned from a grocery shop before he expressed his reconciliation intention. Also with them was their teenage daughter.
Seeing the accused with the bakakuk, his ex-wife held the victim’s hand and both of them tried to run away.
At the same time, she heard a shot being fired and also saw the accused loading bullets into the bakakuk.
She then jumped at the accused, helped by their daughter and a scuffle ensued. Both the woman and the daughter had shouted for help.
The victim suffered four injuries on his body but there was no internal injury.
In pleading for a lenient sentence, National Legal Aid Foundation counsel Ram Singh, who represented the accused, said that two months before the incident, the couple had divorced at the Native Court in Kota Marudu.
The counsel explained that the accused claimed that his wife asked for a divorce and he had consented to her request.
He said that the accused also claimed that the reasons for their divorce was that his ex-wife was allegedly jealous and an alcoholic.
The accused did not intend to harm anybody and he did that because he wanted to scare his ex-wife.
He had asked permission to bring his son to stay with him but his ex-wife allegedly did not allow him to keep the victim even for a night.
He had loaded the bullets into the shotgun and pointed it to the ground but he was taken aback when the victim ran towards his mother which caused him to accidentally pull the trigger and the shot had hit his son.
When the accused saw the shot hit his son, he fainted and when he woke up, he was tied and police were there to arrest him.
The counsel submitted that the accused was extremely remorseful with what had happened and since the incident he has not seen his son except on the picture exhibit showed to him.
In reply, the prosecution urged the court to impose a heavier sentence saying that the accused had committed a serious offence and a deterrence would serve as a lesson to the accused not to repeat a similar offence in future.
The prosecution also urged the court to take into consideration the trauma the victim may have suffered due to what his own father had done to him and the victim had two operations due to the injuries.
Apart from that, the prosecution further submitted that the accused had in his possession the bakakuk which was a weapon that could cause accident or death.