Ex-convict, son held over alleged rape

SIBU: A 53-year-old man, only released from prison in August last year after being convicted of raping his daughter, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of raping his 7-year-old granddaughter.

Also arrested for the same offence was the man’s 25-year-old son, the uncle of the victim.

Police yesterday obtained seven-day remand orders against the father and son, who were alleged to have raped the girl repeatedly in the past year.

The girl’s suffering came to light when she related her ordeal to her mother.

In another case, police obtained a five-day remand order against a man suspected of raping his 15-year-old daughter in Sarikei.

State Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Dev Kumar said the victim, who is studying at a boarding school in Sungai Paoh, claimed that she had been raped by her 38-year-old father several times over the past month.

The incidents here and in Sibu are the latest in a series of rape and incest cases to have hit Sarawak.

On Wednesday, the Betong Sessions Court sentenced a 49-yearold farmer to 22 years’ jail and 20 strokes of the rotan after he pleaded guilty to six charges of committing incest and outraging the modesty of his now 15-yearold daughter between September 2014 and July this year.

In Melaka, a man awaiting trial for raping a 10-year-old girl was yesterday charged at the magistrate’s court here with taunting and intimidating his alleged victim last July.

Army retiree Ab Malek Jantan, 45, from Taman Tanjung Minyak Utama, claimed trial to the charge, which was read to him before magistrate Mohd Firdaus Saleh.

Ab Malek is accused of criminal intimidation by making threatening and mocking facial expressions at the girl at the Melaka Court Complex’s canteen on July 25.

It is understood that the girl, still traumatised by the alleged rape, was terrified.

The offence under Section 506 of the Penal Code carries a jail sentence of up to seven years, or a fine, or both.

Deputy public prosecutor N. Sivashangari urged the court to grant bail at RM8,000.

However, counsel N. Gunalan pleaded for a lower bail on the grounds that his client had to support his wife and three schooling children.

Firdaus set bail at RM2,500 and warned the accused not to disturb the girl, who will be the prosecution’s main witness.

The case was fixed for mention on Oct 5.

Ab Malek and the girl were at the court complex on the day of the incident to attend to matters relating to Ab Malek’s trial for raping and forcing the girl to perform sexual acts on him at his home in early December 2013 at 2pm.

On May 26, 2015, he was charged at the Sessions Court here with raping the girl. He was also charged with committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature on the girl.