Woman who allegedly prostituted daughter to be charged

MIRI: The woman who allegedly prostituted her 14-year-old daughter to settle her own debts will be charged in court in Lawas with the offence today. Two men, including a relative, have also been arrested over the case.

One of the men told police that he had taken the girl to a hotel room in town but did not have sex with her when he realised that she was his niece.

Besides the 30-year-old mother, a female owner of a karaoke will also be charged in court in Lawas, a transit point between Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei in north-east Sarawak.

Sarawak CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Dev Kumar said police would charge the mother under the Penal Code and Child Act 2001 today.

“The mother and the karaoke owner will be charged with prostituting the girl,” he said yesterday, adding that police would charge those who had sex with the girl with rape.

Yesterday, Lawas police also arrested a 29-year-old businessman for allegedly raping the teenager.

Meanwhile, police said the relative, aged 23 and arrested on Oct 9 night in front of a restaurant in Lawas, had admitted to taking the girl into a hotel room but did not have sex with her.

“He told us that he found out that she was his niece,” Lawas district police chief Deputy Supt Abang Zainal Abidin Abang Ahmad told a press conference.

The suspect, he added, has been remanded for seven days to facilitate investigation.

The girl’s mother was picked up on Oct 8 after her village chief took the daughter to lodge a police report.

According to the police, the housewife allegedly forced her daughter to be a sex worker to help pay off debts she had incurred.

The mother is said to have worked with the karaoke owner to offer the sex service.

The young victim told police that she was raped three times by a man in a hotel.

She claimed that the man had paid the karaoke owner RM1,000. The owner was also arrested on Oct 8.