Sentences in court cases should act as deterrents

I AM writing to express my profound disappointment at the lenient sentence handed down to a father who sexually assaulted his 15-year-old daughter (“Jail and cane for dad who assaulted teen daughter”, The Star, Nov 7; online at bit.ly/star_canejail).

The maximum punishment for such a heinous crime is a jail term of up to 20 years, yet this offender received only three years and six months in prison, along with two strokes of the rotan.