VULNERABLE ADULTS
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- provided under subsection (2) in respect of those offences; and
- (b) a District Court has jurisdiction to try the offences punishable under sections 324 and 325, and power to impose the full punishment provided under subsection (2) in respect of those offences.
- (5) In this section, “vulnerable adult” has the meaning given by section 2 of the Vulnerable Adults Act 2018.”;
- (b) by deleting the words “2 years, or with fine, or with both” in section 376F(2) and substituting the words “5 years, or with fine, or with caning, or with any combination of such punishments”; and
- (c) by deleting the words “10 years, or with fine, or with both” in section 376F(3) and substituting the words “20 years, and shall also be liable to a fine or to caning”.
Amendment of Protection from Harassment Act
41. The Protection from Harassment Act (Cap. 256A, 2015 Ed.) is amended by inserting, immediately after section 8, the following section:
- “Enhanced penalty for offence against vulnerable adult
- 8A.—(1) This section applies where —
- (a) a person is convicted on or after the date of commencement of the Vulnerable Adults Act 2018 of an offence under section 3, 4, 5 or 7 (called in this section the offender) against a vulnerable adult; and
- (b) the offender has no prior conviction (whether before, on or after that date) of the offence under section 3, 4, 5 or 7 (as the case may be), whether or not the prior conviction is for an offence against a vulnerable adult.
- (2) The court may sentence the offender to punishment not exceeding one and a half times the maximum punishment that the
