Man jailed 1,050 years for raping stepdaughter sees sentence reduced to 42

KLANG: The High Court here has set aside a 1,050-year jail sentence – the highest to date for a rape offence – imposed on a man for raping his underage stepdaughter, and reduced it to 42 years.

Judge Datuk Azmi Abdullah made the decision on Monday (March 7) after allowing an appeal by the 34-year-old accused against the original sentence by the Klang Sessions Court.

The man had pleaded guilty before Sessions Court judge Datin M. Kunasundary on Jan 27 last year to 105 charges of raping his stepdaughter at a house in Sungai Way, Petaling Jaya from Jan 5, 2018 to Feb 24, 2020.

Kunasundary sentenced him to 10 years' jail for each charge, with the prison terms to run consecutively, and ordered the accused to be given 24 lashes.

She said the offence was abominable and had blighted the child's future.

On Monday, Justice Azmi amended the sentence to 14 years' imprisonment for each year the offences were committed, namely 2018, 2019 and 2020.

He also ordered the jail terms to run consecutively, for a total of 42 years, and maintained the penalty of 24 lashes.

He said the earlier sentence was "illogical and emotional".

Justice Azmi noted that while the sentence of 10 years' jail for each rape charge was within the limit under the law, the court needed to assess many other factors in sentencing.

"This court finds that the sentence of 1,050 years is unreasonable... because the appellant is unlikely to reach that age. Even the age of 100 is rarely reached by people in the world," he said.

He also said the court could not overlook the suffering of the victim, who was only 12 when the criminal acts began.

The jobless man was unrepresented in his earlier appearance at the Sessions Court. For his appeal, he was represented by lawyers KA Ramu and V Vemal Arasan.

The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Aimi Syazwani Sarmin.