SIBU: A 45-year-old man has been sentenced to a total of 20 years behind bars and whipped 14 times by the Sessions Court here for committing rape and physical sexual assault on his biological daughter.
Judge Musyiri Peet laid down the sentences on Thursday (Oct 10) after the accused from Kampung Bedil, Kanowit pleaded no contest to the charges.
The charges were read and explained to him through an interpreter, which he understood and the consequences of maintaining his plea of guilt.
In the first charge, Judge Musyiri sentenced the accused to 10 years’ imprisonment and 10 strokes of whipping for committing incest on his daughter,16, at an unnumbered rental house on Jalan St Francis Xavier Mission, Kanowit on Jan 1, 2024 at about 12.30am.
As such, he had committed an offence under Section 376 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 376(3) of the Penal Code, which upon conviction provides for an imprisonment term of not less than eight years and not more than 30 years, as well as to be whipped of not less than 10 strokes of cane.
For the second charge of physical sexual assault, he was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and four strokes of whipping for committing the offence by touching the victim for sexual purposes at the same premises on Dec 24 last year.
The offence was framed under Section Section 14(A) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act (SOACA) 2017 and read with Section 16(1) of the same Act, which carries an imprisonment term not exceedingly 20 years and liable to whipping if convicted.
Judge Musyiri ordered the imprisonment sentences for the two charges to run concurrently.
In outlining the facts of the case, deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Mohamad Amirul Hakim Mohamad Zamri told the court that on Jan 1, 2024, at about 7am, on being informed by the victim that she was raped by the accused, the complainant (the victim’s mother) proceeded to lodge a police report.
On the same day at about 2.30pm, acting on information received, police officrs arrested the accused.
The outcome of police investigation revealed that the victim told her mother that she was raped by the accused on the sofa in the living room.
The incident occurred on Jan 1, 2024 at about 12.30am when they had just returned from a party to celebrate the new year. The victim was half asleep on the sofa when she was raped.
The next morning, the accused warned the victim not to tell anyone about what had happened.
“Based on police investigation, the accused committed an offence Under Section 376(3) of the Penal Code and Section 14(a)of SOACA 2017,” DPP Amirul Hakim stated.
The accused, who was unrepresented by legal counsel, pleaded for leinency in passing sentence.
