By: Rita Jong

SHAH ALAM, MALAYSIA: It was like a scene from the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where the wicked witch lured Snow White with a red apple.

Only this time, the "witch" was Bangladeshi Salim Madul, 21, who lured a 7-year-old girl into his home, also with a red apple, to outrage her modesty.

The girl was playing with sparklers outside her grandmother's home when Salim, who was staying nearby, waved to her and asked her to go over, showing her a red apple to lure her.

When the girl walked up to him, he took her to his room and molested her.

When she eventually managed to get away from his grasp, the frightened girl ran home and told her elder brother and parents about the incident. They immediately lodged a police report.

Yesterday, Salim was sentenced to four years' jail and one stroke of the rotan after he pleaded guilty to outraging her modesty at a house in Shah Alam at 9pm on Sept 22 last year.

Sessions Court judge M. Gunalan ordered the jail term to run from the date of his arrest on Sept 22.

In mitigation, counsel Salim Bashir said his client was young and a first-time offender.

"He has been held in remand since his arrest and the experience is already a painful lesson for him," he said, adding that Salim often had chest pains.

He also said that last month, the accused was sentenced to five months' jail at the magistrate's court here for overstaying under the Immigration Act and was currently serving his sentence.

Assistant public prosecutor Wan Zuraida Wan Nawan pressed for a deterrent sentence to teach the accused a lesson.

"Although the victim was not physically hurt, she was emotionally traumatised.

"Such sexual offences must be dealt with severely."