Fadley Faisal
A 32-year-old local man was sentenced to five years’ jail by the Intermediate Court yesterday for attempting to kidnap an eight-year-old girl and drug use.
Mohammad Firdaus bin Yunus pleaded guilty to the charges drafted against him of attempting to kidnap the girl from a primary school in Kuala Belait on June 14, 2021 and consuming methylamphetamine on April 21 and June 15, 2021.
Judge Pengiran Masni binti Pengiran Haji Bahar noted that the defendant’s brazen premeditated act and deception are aggravating factors warranting a higher range of punishment, bearing in mind the totality principle when delivering the sentence.
DPP Raihan Nabilah binti Haji Ahmad Ghazali revealed that the defendant had gone to the school that morning and posed as the girl’s father at first.
When the girl was brought out to meet him by another teacher, he was asked for his identity again to which he claimed to be the girl’s uncle.
The teacher was suspicious of the change and the defendant grew impatient, asking why he couldn’t see the girl.
The teacher then sought a colleague to watch after the girl while she spoke to the defendant. It was found that the girl knew the defendant as Uncle Daus.
The defendant asked the girl for her father’s phone number to which she replied she did
not know.
The defendant asked her if she wanted to come with him as well as the time of her recess.
The girl said she did not want to go with him as she wanted to finish her school work before returning to her classroom.
The girl told her mother about the incident at the end of the school day.
Her mother immediately filed a police report, which led to the defendant’s arrest on the
same day.
Investigations revealed that the defendant was an acquaintance of the girl’s father.
The defendant confessed that his attempt to kidnap the girl was part of the ploy to lure the girl’s father to meet him at a mosque nearby when he arrives to rescue his daughter.
He had a grudge against the girl’s father and wanted to confront him for telling the defendant’s family of his involvement in illicit drug sales.
As part of the investigations, the defendant’s urine sample was taken after which he was found positive for the Class A drug.
Meanwhile, on April 21, 2021 the defendant was arrested along with another man at a house at RPN Kampong Pandan ‘C’, Kuala Belait during a raid by Narcotics Control Bureau officers.
He once again tested positive for Class A drug.
The defendant has had three previous drug convictions.
