Sex offender laws to be reformed

JOHOR BARU: The Home Ministry is looking at reforming Malaysia’s existing laws or to enact a new one to try sex offenders in court without the physical presence of the victims, said Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

The deputy home minister said currently, survivors of sexual offences had to be present in court to testify, which is seen as a humiliating experience because in Malaysian society a greater stigma is placed on the victims rather than the predators.

He said there were provisions under the Penal Code to deal with sex offenders but they needed to be improved to better suit current times where Internet use was now very common among the people.

“Such improvements to our laws will mean that our justice system can convict sex offenders based on evidence gathered through various methods and the best example is via the Internet like that used in the trial of British paedophile Richard Huckle,” he told reporters yesterday.

He said Britain introduced a new law in 2013 specifically to handle sexual crimes committed through the Internet, using materials such as online photos and videos as evidence to bring people like Huckle, 30, to justice.

“We will begin discussions with the agencies within my ministry this week on tackling sex offenders too, not just paedophiles. We need to look at a wider spectrum,” he added.

He said sexual predators usually had the ability to blend in with the locals, leading to the people letting their guard down.

“Also with our culture of not liking to ask questions, we tend to let things like this slip past us as we don’t question a person’s background or charitable NGOs (non-governmental organisations),” he said.