A CONVICTED molester's appeal against his 14-year and 18-stroke sentence was adjourned for him to be sent to the Institute of Mental Health for a full examination.

Mohammed Ismail Ariffin had appealed to the High Court against his sentence of preventive detention, a jail term for hardened criminals with no early release, imposed by a lower court in June on 10 charges of aggravated molestation, outrage of modesty and insulting a woman's modesty.

The 36-year-old, who has a low IQ, had a fetish for touching and smelling his victims.

He struck at Housing Board estates in Marsiling and Woodlands, preying on 23 victims aged nine to 53 between September 2006 and February this year.

In a few cases, he threatened them that he had a knife or said he would hit them.

On Thursday, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said the nature of Ismail's offences did not disclose real violence.

'He made threats but nothing really happened,'' he said.

He noted that Ismail had, among other things, smelt the armpits of his victims, which showed that there was 'something very wrong with him'.'

CJ Chan said this had gone on for years, and nobody had ever given him a psychiatric examination.

All that the psychiatric report said was that he was fit to plead.

He adjourned the case for a full psychiatric assessment to be done on Ismail, who was not represented.