Bandar Seri Begawan - A Malaysian man pleaded guilty at the Magistrate's Court yesterday to having sexual relations with two underage girls as a total of four charges were brought against him.

The 32-year-old Mohammad Nizam bin Mohammad Sahari will be penalised on two counts under Section 2 of the Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (UCK) Act, Chapter 29, one count under Section 376 (1) of the Penal Code, Chapter 22 for rape and one count for his illegally entry into Brunei Darussalam.

The defendant had been residing at a rented house in Muara and would sometimes stay with his aunt in Brunei's oil district.

In court, the statement of facts stated that some time between January and August of 2012, the defendant had befriended a 14-year-old girl on social networking site Facebook and had established communications with her.

He had introduced himself as `Bayu' and the two were conversing through an online chat service provided by Facebook for several months and subsequently exchanged contact numbers.

After the victim had provided the defendant with her home address, the Malaysian contacted the victim telling her that he wanted to meet her at her house to which the victim agreed to and on August 17, 2012 half an hour after midnight, the defendant went to the victim's home in Kuala Belait.

With the girl's parents unaware of what was happening, the defendant, who was aware of the victim's age, met her and their physical intimacy led to intercourse with the victim's consent.

A few weeks later, the victim received a text message from the .defendant asking her to meet him but did not get to do so as she had fallen asleep. He texted her again asking her to meet him the next day at a small hut behind the secondary school where she was studying.

After reaching school on September 4 at around 6.25am, she left her school bag in her classroom and 20 minutes later, she reached the hut where the defendant and his acquaintance were waiting for her inside a car.
The victim got into the car and the defendant's friend drove them to the defendant's aunt's house where, upon reaching their destination, the defendant brought her inside, and then exited the house through the kitchen door towards a vacant house next door.

They got into the act again with the victim's consent and at around 7.45am. The victim was dropped off at her school where her discipline teacher discovered that she had 'escaped' from the school and called her parents.

Around 11am the same morning, the victim's father made a police report against the defendant and later that afternoon, the victim was brought to Suri Seri Begawan Hospital in Kuala Belait for a medical exam where the Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist took swabs from the victim that tested positive for the presence of spermatozoa and prostate specific antigen.

The same afternoon, police arrested the defendant at his aunt's house. Investigations conducted by the Royal Brunei Police Force revealed that the defendant had been illegally staying in the country since July 2010.

The other girl that he admitted to raping, meanwhile, was 13 at the time of the incident on November 24, 2011. No other details were available.

Under Brunei's law, the first two penalties carry an imprisonment for a term that shall not be less than two years and not more than seven years and not exceeding 24 strokes of the cane for an adult and not more than 12 strokes in case of a youth.

For violating the said Penal Code for rape, offenders can face an imprisonment term that may extend up to 30 years and shall also be whipped.

Under the Immigration Act (Chapter 17), an offender may face jail for a term not less than three months and not more than two years and not less than three strokes of the cane cumulatively.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin