Rape: Jail term reduced, but whipping doubled

KOTA KINABALU: A man, who was sentenced to 26 years’ jail with six strokes of the cane for two counts of rape, had his jail sentence reduced to 20 years while his whipping was increased to 12 strokes by the High Court here yesterday.

Justice Datuk Nurchaya Hj Arshad imposed the sentence on the 31-year-old man after allowing his appeal against his sentence yesterday.

For the first charge, the accused was sentenced by the Sessions Court here to 13 years’ jail with three strokes of the cane after he changed his plea to that of guilty when his case came up for trial on June 27.

He had raped his 14-year-old niece in a Papar village in midSeptember last year, between 1pm and 2pm.

On the second charge, the accused received the same punishment for committing a similar offence involving the same girl, at the same place on December 23, 2015, around 9pm.

Both charges were framed under Section 375(g) of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 376(1) of the same Code, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years with whipping, upon conviction.

He was ordered to have his sentences run consecutively.

Earlier, counsel Goldam Hamid, who represented the accused, submitted that the jail sentence was too much for his client and prayed for the sentence to be reduced or to run concurrently.

He said the offences were committed towards the same victim and involved one transaction only.

However, deputy public prosecuter Wan Farrah Farriza Wan Ghazali argued that the two said charges were different transactions in time, place and date. Therefore, she urged the court to maintain the sentence and to be run consecutively.