Baby-dumping: Police nab stepfather of 15-year-old girl

BINTULU: Police arrested a foreigner on suspicion of raping his teenage stepdaughter, in connection with a baby-dumping incident last Friday.

The 46-year-old suspect was nabbed at a shophouse unit at Jalan Tanjung Batu here around 6.15pm on Sunday following revelations made by the teenager.

District police chief Supt Zulkipli Suhaili said the 15year-old girl told police that her stepfather had been raping her since she was nine years old.

“The suspect is being investigated under Section 376 of the Penal Code and, if convicted, can be jailed up to 20 years and caned,” he said yesterday.

Zulkipli added the suspect is also being investigated under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63, which carries a RM10,000-fine or not less than five years’ imprisonment, or both, and also six strokes of the cane upon conviction.

On the baby-dumping case, he said police were alerted around 9.30pm on Dec 22 when the teenager was admitted to hospital for heavy bleeding after delivering the baby.

“Preliminary investigation found the teenager was alone when she gave birth to a baby boy around 8.30am that day in a house at Tanjung Kidurong.

“The baby was alive and the teenager wrapped him in a piece of cloth before dumping him in a garbage bin in front of her house.”

Zulkipli further said that the teen’s stepsister, who returned home later that day, rushed the teen to Bintulu Hospital after realising she was bleeding heavily.

After it was revealed that she had dumped the newborn in the garbage bin, police rushed to the scene but found that the baby had died, he said.