Fatimah hopes that swift police action, stiff court sentences would help to reduce cases

Fatimah hoped the swift action taken by the police and stiff sentences given by the court would help to reduce the number of incest cases in Sarawak.

“Of course, we all realise that there are cases that went unreported because of certain reasons – either they were not aware or they did not know how to report.

“But that will not change our stand. Incest is a very serious heinous crime that should not happen, and we all should tackle it together seriously,” she said.

Statistics showed that in 2016, three cases were committed by fathers, three by stepfathers, one by the grandfather, one by the brother, four by uncles and one by brother-in-law while in 2017, eight cases were committed by fathers, two by stepfathers, three by grandfathers, two by brothers and four by uncles.

In 2016, one of the suspects was 17-years- old and another was 64 -years- old while in 2017 a suspect was 19-years- old and another was 59-years- old.

In 2016, the youngest victim was three-years old and the oldest was 19-years- old while in 2017 the youngest was eight and oldest was 19.