The Court of Appeal on June 12 upheld the guilty verdict and sentence of nine years’ imprisonment and three whippings of a male teacher who had outraged the modesty of a male child with special needs and recorded an obscene video of another male child who was carrying out a sexual act.
The trial was heard in the Intermediate Court before Judge Pengiran Masni binti Pengiran Bahar in 2020.
The prosecution called four witnesses while the defence produced two witnesses, including the appellant himself.
The appellant was a relief teacher, who had abused his position and took advantage of the child’s disabilities by bringing him to the school lavatory where he then performed a sexual act on the victim.
On another occasion, the appellant brought another child to a room in the school where he ordered the student to perform a sexual act while the appellant filmed it on his phone.
The appellant was found to still be in possession of the video after his arrest and in his judgement, Justice Conrad Seagroatt commented “the video of the boy (doing a sexual act) recorded on a phone was available for dissemination on a wide basis as well as for perverse self-gratification”.
Justice Seagroatt went on to say that “the appellant is a mature man, over 30 years old and a relief teacher of handicapped children. Not only his action in relation to this child, who suffers from severe problems of communication, but the extreme abuse, and gross breach of trust showed he took advantage of the boy’s singularly limiting capabilities”.
He further stressed that with the appellant’s experience in handling special needs students and in view of his sexual predilections, he ought to never be allowed to be in a position relating to young people.
Justice Seagroatt highlighted that in delivering her judgement, Judge Pengiran Masni had fully armed herself with the legal strictures concerning the age and capacity of children as witnesses, especially in cases involving alleged sexual offences.
He remarked that upon assessment of the boy’s evidence, she had found him to be unusually convincing and that she was overwhelmed by his ability to express his feelings despite his innate difficulties. – Fadley Faisal
