A High Court had in 2019 enhanced the man’s jail term to 25 years and ordered him to be whipped 13 times for alleged oral sex and attempted rape.

A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by judge Lee Swee Seng, in allowing the 39-year-old man’s appeal, said the conviction was unsafe as he had raised a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.

The judge said that even the 12-year-old victim’s mother, a prosecution witness, had given evidence that her daughter was unreliable and that she “makes up stories”.

Lee, who sat with P Ravinthran and Hadhariah Syed Ismail, said the trial judge in the sessions court had failed to make any finding on the issue of the victim’s credibility at the close of the prosecution’s case.

The man has been in Kota Kinabalu Prison since the day he was charged as he could not post the RM10,000 bail.

He was alleged to have forced the girl to perform oral sex on him on March 19, 2015 and attempted to rape her the following day at a house in Kota Kinabalu.

On Jan 29, 2018, the sessions court sentenced him to 15 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the rotan for attempted rape and another 10 years’ imprisonment and three strokes of rotan for oral sex charge.

He was ordered to serve both sentences concurrently, meaning 15 years and 13 strokes of the rotan.

The prosecution appealed against inadequacy of sentence while the man appealed against the conviction.

On Dec 10, 2019, the High Court allowed the prosecution’s appeal and ordered the man to serve 25 years’ jail and to be whipped 13 times.

Lawyer K Rakhbir Singh represented the man while deputy public prosecutor Ng Siew Wee appeared for the prosecution.