New law to curb child sexual crime

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is looking into the implementation of a new law to better protect children from incidents of sexual violence.
According to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (pix), the new law will mainly look at the burden of proof on the side of the victims, the need for a special court and prosecutors with expert knowledge on violence against children.
"There has not been many convictions because of the burden of proof especially when it involves children below the age of 7 or 6, worse is when they are still toddlers.
"It is important to speed up the cases and the challenge will be for the children to relate the incidents," she told a press conference after chairing the first meeting of the sexual crime taskforce today.
Azalina said that delay in prosecution and conviction prolongs the victim's trauma and could also cause the children to forget some details.
She said a study is underway to look into the probability of drafting the special law to prevent sexual crime against children.
"That's the main issue which we are looking into right now. We have agreed to do a detailed research on having the specific law.
"I hope in two weeks time we can have something concrete on specifications, structure and penalties," she said.
Police records showed that an average of six to seven rape involving minor victims are reported every day nationwide in the past three years.
However the trend is said to be reducing with 1,829 cases reported in 2014 compared to over 3,000 cases prior to 2012.
In the meeting, Azalina said among the concerns raised were protection of children online especially those who are tech-savvy at an early age and children who are not aware they are falling victim to sexual predators like in the case of paedophile Richard Huckle in June.
She said the taskforce comprises representatives from the Attorney-General's Chamber and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, police, Bar Council, Malaysian Syariah Lawyers Association, academicians and local and international non-governmental organisations.
"Malaysians cannot continue to be in denial that this is a problem and the importance of sex education."
Soon after Huckle's case, activist Syed Azmi had also exposed a prolific chat group with 751 members created to discuss sex with children and to share child pornography.