Court day: Leang being escorted by the police upon arrival at the Kulai Magistrate Court. He was earlier charged at the Sessions Court in Johor Baru.
JOHOR BARU: A jobless man has been charged with 15 offences involving abducting, wrongfully confining and sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl, as well as collecting and keeping child sexual abuse material and pornographic items.
Leang Win Son, 31, pleaded not guilty to all the charges when he was brought to two Sessions Courts here and the Kulai Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
The offences included forcing the child to expose her body for his viewing in a hotel room in Selangor, where the girl was found along with him three days after she was last seen by her family 350km away in Johor Baru, last month.
Leang pleaded not guilty to eight charges before Sessions judge Rasidah Roslee and Sessions judge Siti Noraida Sulaiman here yesterday.
In front of Rasidah, Leang was accused of having abducted the child from her mother at Eco Galleria, Taman Botani in Iskandar Puteri here at around 8.30pm on July 20.
He was charged under Section 363 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment and a fine, upon conviction.
In the same court, Leang was also accused of wrongfully confining the child in a hotel room along Jalan Mahagoni 9, at Batang Kali in Hulu Selangor, Selangor, at about 4.45am on July 23.
He was charged under Section 346 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum two years in jail upon conviction.
In another Sessions Court in front of judge Siti Noraida, Leang faces six charges, four of which are for possession of 5,317 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, which were kept in two secure digital (SD) cards, a hard drive and a mobile phone in a house along Jalan Bunga Raya 2, Taman Sri Kulai in Kulai at 4pm on July 24.
He was charged under Section 8(b) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years and a minimum three strokes of the cane, upon conviction.
In two other charges, Leang allegedly kept child pornography – 30 images of child sexual abuse found on a mobile phone in a hotel room at Jalan Mahagoni 9, Batang Kali, at 4.45am on July 23.
He was charged under Section 10 of the same Act, which carries a maximum five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to RM10,000 or both, upon conviction.
Leang, who was wearing a black T-shirt and blue denim shorts, was also charged with non-physical sexual abuse for forcing the child to expose her body for his viewing in the hotel room between 12.30pm on July 22 and 4.45am on July 23.
He was charged under Section 15(a)(ii) of the same Act, which carries a maximum jail term of 10 years or a fine of up to RM20,000 or both, if convicted.
During the court proceedings before judge Siti Noraida, the victim’s mother was also seen seated in the public gallery with a friend.
The two courts set total bail of RM50,000 with additional conditions that Leang should not disturb the prosecution witnesses, and to report to the nearest police station once a month and surrender his passport to the court.
The case is set for mention again on Sept 12.
Leang was later produced in the Kulai Magistrate’s Court to face a further seven charges – four relating to possession of obscene material in the form of bolsters showing young anime girls naked and wearing shorts, and three charges of sex toy possession.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges allegedly committed at 4pm at his family’s house along Jalan Bunga Raya 2 near Taman Sri Kulai in Kulai on July 24.
Azureen Sahira set bail at RM10,000 for all seven charges and also set Sept 10 for mention.
Johor prosecution director Abdul Ghafar Ab Latif and deputy public prosecutor Nor Fadilah Johanuddin prosecuted while lawyers Ungku Ahmad Hafis Ungku Fathil and Nur Zafirah Norizan represented the accused.
