Farmer gets 22 years’ jail for raping daughter
BETONG: A farmer was sentenced to 22 years’ jail by the Sessions Court here yesterday for committing incest and molesting his underage daughter over the past three years.
Judge Jason Juga also ordered him to receive 20 strokes of the rotan after he pleaded guilty to six charges involving his daughter, who is now 15.
The 49-year-old farmer was charged with having sexual intercourse with his daughter at a hut in an oil palm plantation near a village in Kabong, Saratok, near here in September 2014;
Inside a bedroom of his house at the same village between January and December the following year;
At his house in the same village in January this year;
At a hotel in Saratok about 8pm on May 31;
In a car by the roadside near Kampung Sebuyau in Sri Aman near here, about noon, two months later; and,
Outraging the modesty of his daughter inside the bathroom of his house between January and July this year.
On the first five charges, Jason sentenced the accused to 22 years’ jail and four strokes of the rotan for each offence.
On the sixth charge, he was sentenced to five years’ jail. The sentences are to run concurrent- ly from the date of arrest.
The accused, who was unrepresented, pleaded for leniency on the grounds that he was the sole breadwinner of his family and he had to take care of his sick wife.
Prosecuting officer Assistant Superintendent Jessica Unchi, in urging the court to impose a deterrent sentence, said the first incident took place when the victim was only 12.
“The irresponsible action by the accused has traumatised the victim and caused her severe depression,” she said, suggesting that the sentences should run consecutively.
Jason, in his ruling, said the court observed the serious nature of the offences, which called for a deterrent punishment.
In Si b u, the jail term of about nine years for raping his daughter in 2008 did nothing to make a 53-year-old man repent.
The unemployed suspect, who was released from prison in August last year, was arrested again yesterday for allegedly committing a similar offence.
The suspect had conspired with his 25-year-old son.
The victim was the former’s granddaughter, who is 7.
The victim’s predicament came to light when she related the incidents to her mother, who had been living separately from her daughter following her divorce from her husband seven years ago.
State Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the housewife was told by her daughter that she had been repeatedly raped by the suspects since last year.
“At that time, the victim, who was a Year One pupil, was staying in the grandfather’s house, while her mother was staying in Mukah.
“The victim’s mother visited her daughter from time to time.
“It was when the 27-year-old housewife took her daughter to Mukah during the school holidays that she was told of the victim’s ordeal,” said Dev.
Acting on a report lodged by the victim’s mother, police arrested the girl’s uncle at his workplace in a timber factory here about 1pm yesterday.
An hour later, police arrested the victim’s grandfather at his house here.
Both suspects are expected to be produced at the magistrate’s court here to be remanded.