KOTA KINABALU: A labourer was sentenced to 15 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter several times over these past five months.
The 44-year-old Indonesian was handed the sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting the girl four times between January and May this year, before Sandakan Sessions Court judge Zaini Fishir @ Fisal on Thursday (May 29).
The court heard that the man had committed the offences under Section 376(3) of the Penal Code and Section 16(1) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 when they were both alone in their plantation quarters in Kinabatangan.
The matter came to light when the girl’s mother found out about the incident, and a police report was lodged at the Kinabatangan Police Station at 12.52am on May 20.
The accused was nabbed just eight minutes later at 1am while the girl, who was just 10 years and 10-months of age, was sent to undergo a medical examination at the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan.
Judge Zaini set an imprisonment sentence of 12 years and 10 strokes of the rotan for one charge, and three years’ jail with two strokes of the cane for the other, ordering the prison terms to run consecutively.
The accused will be referred to the Immigration Department for deportation after completing his punishment.
