DID 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL FAKE RAPE?

Other family members at home during time of alleged rape, says foster mum

COULD the 13-year-old girl, reported to have walked 5km to a police station to report that she had been raped by her foster father since she was 9, made up the whole thing?

Her foster mother told the Welfare Department that it would had been impossible for her husband to rape the girl on Sunday, as claimed by her, as there were other family members at the house in Kampung Sebatu at the time of the alleged incident.

State department director Burhanuddin Bachik said the foster mother, in an interview with his officers, claimed the girl had been wanting to leave her foster parents’ house.

“The foster mother said the girl was good at socialising with boys and she had been going out with them, adding that she had wanted to leave the house and be free, as well as return to her biological mother in Kulai, Johor.”

He said the foster mother said she would leave it to police to investigate the allegations.

The teen was believed to have been abused by a caretaker to whom she had been entrusted by her biological mother and had required intensive care at a hospital in Johor. Following her hospital stay, she was put under the care of the foster family in Merlimau by court order in 2010.

It was reported that the teen had walked 5km from her foster parents’ home to the Merlimau police station to lodge a report against her foster father for raping her again. She claimed he often raped her when her foster mother, a nurse, was at work. The latest incident was on Sunday which occurred when the foster mother was in Johor Baru.

She lodged a report, claiming that he raped her twice when she was sleeping on Sunday.

State Criminal Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner Kamaluddin Kassim said the victim was under observation at Melaka Hospital.

“We will refer her to psychiatrists for evaluation.”

The foster father was remanded for seven days starting Monday to assist in investigations. He was arrested at his house on Sunday. The New Straits Times tried to interview the foster mother, but she declined, saying she and her family wanted privacy.