Mohamad Nurhadi Othman, 28, forced the victim to perform oral sex, committed rape and sodomised her twice within a span of 45 minutes. He then robbed her of her jewellery and a bag before escaping.

Today, the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal to reduce the sentence, ruling that the jail term was not excessive. The maximum punishment for rape is 30 years.

“We have considered the facts and circumstances of this case and there is no reason to disturb the sentences imposed by the High Court,” Kamaludin Md Said, who headed the three-member bench, said.

The other judges were Abu Bakar Jais and Ghazali Cha.

Kamaludin said Nurhadi would have spent a longer duration in jail if the High Court had ordered the sentences to run consecutively.

“You should repent while serving your sentence and ask for forgiveness from Allah,” Ghazali told Nurhadi.

In presenting the facts of the case, deputy public prosecutor Atiqah Abdul Karim @ Husaini said Nurhadi forced the 23-year-old victim to perform oral sex on him and sodomised her twice as well as raped her at the premises between 10.10pm and 10.55pm on Aug 1, 2018.

“Nurhadi waited outside the shop and took the opportunity to commit the crimes when she was alone.

“He entered the shop on the pretext of wanting to buy a dress and asked the victim to try it on as he wanted to buy it for his girlfriend.

“He then pulled out a knife and threatened the victim before committing the sexual crimes,” Atiqah said.

She said this showed that the attack was premeditated.

“The incident traumatised the victim and she was also frightened that she would be harmed when the robbery took place. Nurhadi fled with two gold bangles and her bag,” she said.

According to the DPP, Nurhadi was arrested the following day after spending a night in a nearby hotel.

He pleaded guilty to the charges at his trial in the sessions court and was sentenced to 20 years’ jail and eight strokes of the rotan for rape.

He was sentenced to 15 years in jail and five strokes of the rotan each for the oral sex charge and the two counts of sodomy.

In addition, he was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and six strokes each on the two counts of robbing the victim of her jewellery and bag.

The trial judge ordered the jail terms to run concurrently, which meant he will serve 20 years in prison and receive a total of 35 strokes of the rotan.

Nurhadi then appealed to the High Court for his sentence to be reduced. However, it maintained the jail term and only reduced the five strokes each for the oral sex and sodomy charges to two. That meant he was to receive a total of 29 strokes of the rotan.

The High Court’s decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal today.

However, he will only be whipped 24 times as prescribed under the Criminal Procedure Code.