Ex-military man's 'excessive' sentence reduced
By Malai FadleyRizal

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Court of Appeal allowed a reduction on a former military man's sentence which was imposed by the Intermediate Court after he was found guilty of committing unlawful carnal knowledge with a 15-year-old girl.

The Appeal Judge shaved off two years and two strokes from Mohammad Noorashikin bin Amba's sentence of four years' imprisonment and four strokes of the cane.

The Judge described the sentence imposed by the Intermediate Court upon Md Noorashikin to be 'out of line' where according to the judgement, the case was referred to reports of a number of similar cases, where it was learnt that the current sentence appear to be excessive when compared to the referred cases.

"This (two years and two strokes) is the minimum prescribed by the law. We appreciate that it is unusual to pass a minimum sentence where there had been in fact a plea of not guilty," said Judge Sir Derek Cons having considered of Md Noorashikin's guilty plea towards the charge he was facing.

It was revealed in the court's judgement that the victim had gone to see one of the military policeman on duty at the guardroom of the Royal Brunei Air Force at Berakas Camp in May two years ago.

She called up her friend to tell him that she was coming and her friend advised her otherwise.

Nevertheless, she still went.

Upon her arrival, her friend took her into a storeroom and kissed and cuddled for about ten minutes, but didn't have sex.

Later, her friend went back on duty while the victim stayed in the guardroom.

As described in the judgement, it happened by chance that Md Noorashikin was also in the same room as the victim.

At that time, Md Noorashikin was still a military policeman but on that day, he was off duty and was not wearing his uniform either as he was there because his car had broken down earlier.

A third policeman in the guardroom later hid Md Noorashikin and the victim in the storeroom and locked the door as he saw an officer approaching the guardroom. During their twenty minutes locked in the room, sexual intercourse took place between them.

The victim lodged a report the following day, and so did Md Noorashikin knowing that the police were making enquiries.

Ever since the incident happened, Md was dismissed from his job although he hadn't been in any kind of trouble before. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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