KOTA KINABALU: A Prisons Department officer was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and given six strokes of the rotan after he was found guilty on two counts of sexually harassing his colleague’s teenage daughter in January last year.

       Tawau Sessions court judge Awang Kerisnada Awang Mahmud had initially handed the accused Marino Majabin a 10-year prison sentence and three strokes of the cane for each offence.

       However, the court ruled the prison sentences to run concurrently.

       Awang Kerisnada made the ruling after the defence failed to raise reasonable doubt on the charges against the accused at the end of his trial at the court in Tawau.

       The judge said he had considered the trauma impacted on the girl and the public interest in reaching his judgement.

       Marino, 48, was accused of committing two sexual acts on the 15-year-old girl while in a toilet at the prison quarters at Jalan Air Panas Taman Ehsan at 3.30am on Jan 12, 2021.

       According to the facts of the case, Marino was charged with, among others, touching her private parts.

       The father had taken the girl to the quarters, where the accused stayed, to seek traditional treatment as she was said to be "suffering disturbances from spirits".

       The accused was said to have treated the girl in the living room but had to bring her to the toilet in order to bathe the girl.

       Marino was charged under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (Act 792) for both offences.

       Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Suhaimi Suriana had earlier applied for a heavy sentence as a deterrent.

       The accused’s lawyer Ag Amli Noraufe Ag Nohin had applied to the court to delay the execution of the sentence in order to file an appeal at the High Court.