Man jailed 45 years for raping his wife’s niece

KOTA KINABALU: A 54-yearold man was sentenced to 45 years in jail by the Sessions Court here yesterday for raping his wife’s niece.

Judge Noor Hafizah Mohd Salim imposed the lengthy jail term on the man after he pleaded guilty to two charges under Section 376(3) of the Penal Code, which carries a jail term of up to 30 years and whipping of not less than 10 strokes of the cane, upon conviction.

On the first count, he was sentenced to 20 years’ jail for raping the nine years and three months old girl at a house in a village in Kota Belud at 2.20pm in November 2018.

On the second count, he received another 25 years’ jail for committing a similar offence to the same victim at the same place at 2pm on March 7.

The court held that the accused had committed two different offences and a repeat offence, which the accused was ordered to serve the custodial sentence consecutively, with effect from March 7.

However, no whipping was imposed on the accused due to his age.

In mitigation, the accused, who was not represented, prayed for leniency on the ground that he was remorseful of his act.

Deputy public prosecutor Lim Sze Chuen replied that the accused had committed a serious offence against a child.

The accused, moreover, is the girl’s uncle and this incident had traumatized her.

Thus, Lim urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence against the accused.

Facts of the case stated that the accused was living in a house next to the victim’s house.

On March 7 around afternoon, the victim was playing together with her two younger siblings outside their house when the accused suddenly invited her to his house.

The victim went to the accused’s house along with her two siblings but the accused took only the victim into his house while he ordered the other two siblings to wait outside.

The accused, who was only clad in a bath towel, brought the victim to the bathroom and raped her.

Before the victim left the house, the accused gave her RM2 and told her to keep quiet about it.

However, the victim who returned home with her two siblings, related the incident to her elder sister and eventually the news went straight to her mother.

A police report was lodged by her mother on the same day at 7.22pm and the police arrested the accused at 10.30pm at his house.

Further investigation revealed that the accused first raped the victim in November 2018.

The victim was playing at the gate of her house and the accused called her over to his house, and raped her.

She also received RM5 from the accused, afterwards, and warned the victim not to tell anyone about the incident.

At that time, she kept quiet because she was afraid the accused would not give her a lift to school anymore.