Supreme Court Reinstates 18-Year Prison Sentence for Mother Who Facilitated Abuse of Daughter

The Supreme Court has overturned an appellate ruling and reinstated an 18-and-a-half-year prison sentence against a mother for facilitating, encouraging, and concealing the repeated sexual abuse of her biological daughter.

The supreme court’s ruling nullifies a 2018 High Court decision that had quashed the original conviction, requiring the woman who had been released following the appellate ruling to return to custodial prison to serve out her sentence.

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The case dates back to offenses committed from 2014 onwards, where the defendant repeatedly facilitated and encouraged a male perpetrator to commit sexual acts against her young daughter. 

In 2016, the HDh. Kulhudhuffushi Magistrate Court found her guilty on two counts: facilitating sexual acts against a minor while occupying a position of trust, and failure to report child sexual abuse despite having full knowledge of the offense. 

The magistrate court handed down a cumulative prison term of 18 years and six months.

The defendant appealed the verdict to the High Court, which quashed the conviction in 2018. 

The appellate bench held that her constitutional right to a fair defense had been prejudiced due to an absence of administrative receipts proving trial discovery documents were served, and ruled that the failure-to-report charge had been improperly filed without a separate, dedicated investigation.

Overturning that finding, the Supreme Court ruled that the High Court had erred in its procedural assessment.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain noted that because the trial took place prior to the enactment of the modern Criminal Procedure Act, the absence of a formal service receipt was not fatal to the prosecution.

The court highlighted that the defendant never raised any objection regarding missing documentation during the lower court trial. 

Furthermore, she was afforded the opportunity to retain defense counsel and had personally cross-examined prosecution witnesses on the State’s medical evidence, demonstrating that she had received the material documents and understood the allegations.

The Supreme Court also dismissed procedural objections regarding the investigation into her failure to report the abuse. The record showed that investigating officers had explicitly questioned her on the matter, during which she confessed to knowing about the ongoing sexual abuse of her daughter and deliberately hiding it from authorities.

The majority opinion authored by Justice Ali Rasheed Hussain was unanimously supported by bench members Justice Aisha Shujune Muhammad and Justice Mohamed Saleem, officially closing the appellate avenue and ordering the immediate enforcement of the custodial sentence.