SEREMBAN: A 44-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years in jail and ordered to be whipped five times by the Sessions Court here after he pleaded guilty to a charge of committing incest with his daughter since she was 12, even to the point of getting her pregnant.
The girl gave birth to her father’s baby in August last year.
“Although you have pleaded guilty, the court has to give priority to public interest rather than personal interest,” Sessions judge Mohamad Kamil Nizam said in passing the sentence.
“As a father, you were supposed to care for your child but in this case, you betrayed the trust and caused her misery and trauma.
“The court also takes note that Parliament has amended the law to provide heavier penalties for such crimes,” he added.
The accused was charged with committing the offence around 6am in November 2022 at a house in Kampung Pachitan in Port Dickson. The girl was 18 then.
He was charged under Section 376B(1) of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term of between 10 and 30 years as well as whipping, upon conviction.
Judge Mohamad Kamil said the court also took note of the fact that the victim had only reported the matter to the police after the accused and his wife were detained for a narcotics offence.
Deputy public prosecutor M. Kalaivaanan asked the court to impose a punishment as the accused had raped his daughter repeatedly until she gave birth to an illegitimate child last August.
The accused, he said, had been raping the girl since she was 12.
“Although the accused has pleaded guilty, this should not be automatically considered a mitigating factor.
“The court should also take judicial notice of the increasing number of incest cases and a message has to be sent out to the public that these crimes come with a heavy punishment,” he said.
Kalaivaanan also told the court that Parliament had twice amended the law to provide for stricter penalties for such crimes.
At another court, both the accused and his 45-year-old wife were charged with possession of yaba pills weighing 32.8g at the same house on April 28.
The man pleaded guilty to the charge while his wife claimed trial.
They were charged under Section 12(2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which carries a jail term of between five years and life imprisonment and a minimum whipping of 10 strokes.
Sessions judge Meor Sulaiman Ahmad Tarmizi fixed July 4 for mention.
