Sexual Offences against Children
15
Part VI
CAPACITY AND EVIDENCE OF CHILD WITNESS
Presumption as to capacity of a child witness
17. Notwithstanding anything contrary in any other written law,
in any proceedings against any person relating to any offence
under this Act, or any offence specified in the Schedule where
the victim is a child, a child is presumed to be competent to give
evidence unless the court thinks otherwise.
Evidence of child witness
18. Notwithstanding anything contrary in any other written law,
in any proceedings against any person relating to any offence
under this Act, or any offence specified in the Schedule where
the victim is a child, the court may convict such person of such
offence on the basis of the uncorroborated evidence of a child,
given upon oath or otherwise.
Part VII
MISCELLANEOUS
Failure to give information
19. Notwithstanding section 13 of the Criminal Procedure
Code [Act 593], any person who fails to give information of the
commission of or the intention of any other person to commit any
offence under this Act, or any offence specified in the Schedule
where the victim is a child, to the officer in charge of the nearest
police station, commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be
liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit.
Presumption of age of a child
20. It is not a defence to a charge for any offence under this
Act, or any offence specified in the Schedule where the victim is
a child, that an accused believed that the age of the child is or
more than that as specified in the respective provisions of such
offences at the time the offence is alleged to have been committed
unless the accused took all reasonable steps to ascertain the age
of the child.