Farmer loses appeal, to serve 55 years for raping underage daughter
KUCHING: The High Court here yesterday rejected a farmer’s appeal to have his sentence of 55 years’ jail and 20 strokes of the cane for committing incest and molesting his underage daughter, to run concurrently.
Jud ici a l C ommi s s ioner Celestina Stuel Galid, whose decision was read by deputy registrar Shafiza Abdul Razak Tready, upheld the lower court’s decision for the sentences to run consecutively.
The 49-year- old man pleaded guilty last year in the Sessions Cour t in Sri Aman to f ive charges of incest and one charge of molest against his then 15year- old daughter.
For each incest charge, the accused was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and four lashes while for the molestation charge, he received a five-year jail term.
The farmer from Kabong, Sa r at ok wa s a r r e s t ed in Augus t last year a f ter his daughter confided to her school counselling teacher that she had been raped by her father since she was 12 years old.
The girl’s revelation prompted the teacher to lodge a report at the Saratok police station, which led to the farmer’s immediate arrest.
Meanwhile, in the same High Court yesterday, a Thai national won his appeal to have his sentence reduced for raping a teenage girl last year.
Apidech Phonchatturat had been sentenced to 54 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to five charges of raping the victim.
The offences were committed between June 19 and June 22, 2017 at various locations in an oil palm estate in Sri Aman, after the accused befriended the victim through Facebook a year earlier.
He was arrested after the girl’s father lodged a report at the Sri Aman police headquarters on June 24, 2017.
Following his appeal, the court ordered Apidech’s jail sentence to run concurrently, meaning he will now serve 20 years and receive 15 strokes of the cane.