Justice Azmi Ariffin said this “nauseating phenomenon” continued to “escalate and flow rapidly” as if there was no certainty as to when it would stop.
“It should be emphasised that cases involving sexual crimes are extremely heinous and truly disgraceful,” he said in a judgment to maintain a 15-year jail term and four strokes of the rotan imposed on S Kalidas.
“The people and the nation have placed their trust in the courts. We hope that the heavy sentence imposed by the court can curb the uncontrolled sexual desires of humans like these from continuing.”
Those convicted for sodomy could be jailed up to 20 years and whipped up to 24 times.
In a 12-page judgment posted on the judiciary’s website yesterday, Azmi said the dignity of the victim had been tarnished and could not be restored instantly.
“Certainly, the act of sodomy that befell the victim in a prison cell is not something trivial to be forgotten as it has become a horrific black mark that is difficult to erase from his memory,” he said.
He said this unnatural sexual act occurred within a prison that has strict control and regulations.
“However, strangely, the accused still managed to ‘fish in troubled waters’ and seize the opportunity to satisfy his wild desires with his cellmate,” he said.
Azmi said the accused’s action not only tarnished the reputation of the prison authorities, who tirelessly work day and night to ensure the safety and welfare of the inmates, but also affected all the other inmates present there.
Justice Hadhariah Syed Ismail had earlier led a three-member bench to dismiss Kalidas’s appeal against conviction and sentence. Justice Azman Abdullah was the other member of the bench.
Azmi said there was no need for appellate intervention as there was no misdirection by the lower courts.
Kalidas committed the offence on a 21-year-old inmate at the Sungai Buloh prison at about midnight on Oct 12, 2018.
He had warned his victim against telling anyone about the incident, but the victim decided to report the matter to a prison warden.
Medical and chemist reports corroborated that Kalidas had committed the sexual act on his victim.
Deputy public prosecutor Solehah Noratikah Ismail submitted that a lot of time and resources had been wasted when Kalidas claimed trial, leading the prosecution to bring in 14 witnesses.
She said Kalidas’s conduct revealed that he was not remorseful while serving his prison term.
Lawyer Ameerul Aizat Noor Haslan proposed a 10-year jail term, saying the sentence imposed by the trial judge was manifestly excessive.
The judgment did not state why Kalidas had been sent to jail in the first place.