Rohani: No escape for child rapists even if they want to marry victim

KUCHING: Rapists will not be allowed to escape punishment, even if they seek to marry their victim under new laws passed in Parliament recently, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim (pic).

"A rape is a rape.

"Sexual offenders will be charged in court regardless of whether the case involves a person violating their underage victims with other body parts or objects, sexually abuses their victims in any way or even those who offer to marry their underage victims.

"The definition of rape has been expanded and a rape against a minor is still rape.

"There is no escaping this," Rohani told reporters after visiting the Anjung Singgah, a social service centre for the homeless here Saturday.

She said the new law to protect children from sexual predators that was passed in Parliament on April 4, criminalises adults who, for sexual purposes, touch any part of a child's body or makes the child touch any part of their or any other person's body.

The act would constitute as a physical sexual assault on a child, she added.

Rohani said the Sexual Offences against Children Bill has broadened the definition of rape, which is no longer limited to forced penile penetration.

"Rapists will also not be allowed to escape punishment for their crime, even if they seek to marry their victim," she said.

Rohani was commenting on a recent news report in Kuching of a man wanting to marry his 13-year-old pregnant girlfriend.

Police were reported to have said that the man would still be investigated and charged with statutory rape.