AMPANG - A welfare home caretaker was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five strokes of the cane by the Sessions Court, here, after pleading guilty to multiple sexual offences involving two boys aged eight and 10.
Retna Velu, 25, maintained his guilty plea to six charges involving physical sexual assault, non-physical sexual assault and unnatural intercourse before Judge Norshila Kamaruddin on Thursday.
The court sentenced him to 11 years’ imprisonment for each offence, with all jail terms to run concurrently from the date of his arrest on April 3.
“The court imposes one stroke of the cane for each of the first to fifth charges, while no whipping is imposed for the offence under Section 15(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017,” Norshila said.
She also ordered the accused to undergo counselling throughout his imprisonment and be placed under police supervision for two years after completing his sentence.
Under three charges, the accused admitted to committing unnatural intercourse against two boys aged eight and 10, at a childcare centre in Batu Caves between February and March this year.
The offences were framed under Section 377C of the Penal Code, which carries a prison sentence of between five and 20 years as well as whipping upon conviction.
He also faced two charges under Sections 14(a) and 14(b) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 for committing physical sexual assault against the same victims at the same location in March.
Another charge involved non-physical sexual assault against the 10-year-old victim under Section 15(a)(i) of the same Act.
Before sentencing, the mother of the eight-year-old victim told the court that her son had become withdrawn, fearful of meeting other people and had suffered a decline in his academic performance following the incident.
Meanwhile, the aunt of the 10-year-old victim said the child’s emotions were often unstable and that he was afraid of strangers, especially men.
Although the accused appealed for a lighter sentence, deputy public prosecutor Nadiah Malek Fauzie urged the court to impose separate prison terms for each charge.
Also present during the proceedings were lawyers S. Kirthen and S. Premila as the watching brief for the complainant and non-governmental organisation, Pertubuhan Kebangkitan Tiga Tangan Selangor.
Before Judge Ho Kwong Chin, Retna is also facing nine other similar charges involving several other victims. The accused had pleaded guilty to all the charges.
His case has been fixed for submission of the facts of the case and sentencing on June 4.