BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: The Court of Appeal, led by led by Chief Justice Datuk Seri Paduka Steven Chong, together with Justices Michael Peter Lunn and Edward Timothy Starbuck Woolley, has significantly increased the prison sentence of a 36-year-old security guard who kidnapped an 11-year-old boy and sexually assaulted him and an 18-year-old youth in a case described as serious sexual offending against two separate victims.
Muhammad Firdaus bin Yunus had originally been sentenced to three years and four months’ imprisonment and four strokes of the cane by the Intermediate Court after pleading guilty to three charges, which includes one count of kidnapping and two counts of outraging modesty.
The Public Prosecutor, led by DPP Rozaimah Abd. Rahman and DPP Abdul Hanan Erwan, appealed the sentence, arguing it was manifestly inadequate, leading to the Court of Appeal agreeing to the appeal, which led to the judgement delivered on Monday (June 29).
The case can be traced back to the evening of June 17, 2025, where the 11-year-old victim and his friends, including the 18-year-old victim, were near KB Sentral in Kuala Belait accessing Wi-Fi, during heavy rainfall.
One of the younger boy approached the man’s car asking for money or food but was initially turned away. Shortly after, the man called the boy back and convinced him to get into the vehicle.
The man drove the boy to his home, where the sexual assault occurred and the defendant offered the victim money. When the boy refused, the defendant sexually assaulted him. The boy falsely told the man his mother was a police officer and pleaded to be sent home, which the man complied.
After dropping the boy off near his home between 10 pm to 11pm, the man then called over the 18-year-old friend, leading to a brief exchange by the man asking whether the 18-year-old has watched an ‘inappropriate’ video, before offered BND40 to accompany him back to his residence.
There, the man locked the teenager in the toilet and sexually assaulted him. Police arrived during the assault and found the traumatised teenager hiding in the locked toilet, following the initial 11-year-old contacting the authorities.
The Court of Appeal noted the man had a relevant criminal record, having been convicted in 2022 for the attempted kidnapping of an 8-year-old girl, along with drug consumption offences.
With this in mind, the court found the original sentence unduly lenient for several reasons, which include the fact that, while the sexual offences involved two different individuals, the intermediate court had ordered those sentences to run concurrently, rather than adding them together.
Other factors taken into account during the judgement also include the young age of the victims, records of prior convictions for attempted kidnapping of a young child, as well as consideration for previous cases where higher starting points for imprisonment were established for similar offences.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the proper approach was to impose consecutive sentences for all three charges, significantly increasing the overall jail term.
As a result, a sentence of four years’ imprisonment and four strokes of the cane was imposed, rather than the original three years and four months’ imprisonment and four strokes of the cane, which reflects the gravity and overall criminality of the case. - Borneo Bulletin/ANN
