PUTRAJAYA: A 56-year-old jobless man was sentenced by the Sessions Court here to 30 years in jail and eight strokes of the rotan for raping his girlfriend’s daughter, who he impregnated.
The 14-year-old victim gave birth last month.
Sessions Court judge Yong Zarida Sazali passed the sentence against the man on Feb 13 after he pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and two counts of physical sexual assault.
The man admitted to raping the victim at a house in Chow Kit at 11pm on March 27 last year.
The charge, under Section 376(2)(d) of the Penal Code, provides for a jail time of between 10 and 30 years and whipping.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of physical sexual assault by inserting his finger in the victim’s genital on two separate incidents on June 15 and June 19, 2018.
In both instances, the offences were committed at night at the same house.
The offence under Section 14(a) of the the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 carries a maximum 20 years' imprisonment and whipping.
The accused had initially claimed trial and the case was supposed to go on its first day of hearing on Wednesday. However, the man changed his plea to guilty at the eleventh hour.
The accused, who was unrepresented, asked the court to show leniency.
DPP Noor Jazilah Mohd Yushaa, however, urged the court to consider the victim’s trauma of having to go through pregnancy at such a tender age.
“The court must uphold the public interest more than the accused’s,” she said.
Judge Yong Zarida then imposed a 20-year imprisonment from the date of arrest and four whippings for the rape offence.
For the two counts of physical sexual assault, she passed a 10-year imprisonment and two strokes of the rotan for each offence, to run concurrently.
The court ordered for the jail time for the second and third offences to run after the accused has completed his 20-year jail term.
According to the statement of facts, the accused had been living with his girlfriend and the victim since the victim was six.
The victim did not tell her mother about the sexual assaults because the accused threatened to harm the mother, who did not suspect anything.
However, she finally gathered her courage to make a police report on her own on July 25, 2018.
The accused was arrested the same day.
The victim was taken to the General Hospital (HKL) the next day and the doctor confirmed she was 11 weeks pregnant.
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