The High Court has slapped a child sex offender with a 20-year prison sentence.

Hassan Rasheed, Malé Registry 1816 was jailed for 20 years after he was found guilty of molesting his four-year-old niece.

Charges of molesting a family member were forwarded to the Criminal Court against him back on 11 October 2015. He walked free after the court issued a verdict in his favor on 1 October 2019. The court had decided that the charges against him were unproven due to insufficient evidence.

The decision was appealed at the High Court by the Prosecutor General’s Office on 29 June 2020.

The judges bench presiding over the case has since overturned the lower court verdict. The judges’ bench comprised of Shuaib Hussain Zarakiyya, Abdul Rauf Ibrahim and Mohamed Faisal.

As such, the presiding judges noted that the child’s statement and other evidence submitted in the case points to the fact that Rasheed is guilty of the crime.

The four years, two months and four days the child molester spent jailed will be considered time served from his sentence. With this, the remainder of his sentence is 15 years, nine months and 26 days.