MUAR: A teacher has pleaded not guilty at the Magistrate's Court to sexually assaulting three students at a Kluang high school earlier this year.
The accused, 37, made the plea before magistrate Sayani Mohd Nor after the four charges against him were read out.
For the first and second charges, the teacher is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at the school's workshop on the afternoon of Jan 4.
For the third and fourth charges, he is accused of sexually assaulting two 16-year-old boys at the same location at 9.30am and 2.30pm the same day.
All four charges were framed under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act.
If found guilty, the teacher, a father of two, can be jailed for up to 20 years and caned.
According to the report lodged by one victim, the incident happened after he was called into the workshop, supposedly to have his clothes measured.
While the victim was changing his clothes, the accused, on the pretext of helping him put on his clothes, slipped his hand into the boy's pants.
The boy was taken aback and told his mother what happened after school.
Prosecution was handled by Deputy Public Prosecutor Danial Munir while the teacher was represented by lawyer Nurrul Nadia Norrizan.
The prosecution requested that the accused not be granted bail owing to the seriousness of the crime.
After mitigation, the court set bail at RM42,000 with one surety.
The suspect was also instructed to report to the nearest police station once a month and stay away from the prosecution witnesses until the case is concluded.
The court set Jan 3 for case remention.