KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 25 -- The High Court in Kuantan has slashed a man's sentence for statutory rape from 10 years' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane to one year's jail and two strokes.

In allowing the 23-year-old's appeal against the penalty, Judicial Commissioner Samry Masri ruled that the Sessions Court had failed to give adequate weight to the accused's youth, his clean record as a first offender, and his strong prospects for rehabilitation, FMT reported.

The accused was 19 years old when he committed the offences on October 8 and October 29, 2022. At the time, he worked in the dining hall of a residential school in Kuantan where the 15-year-old complainant, identified in court documents as SP4, was a student.

He was initially...