Man pleads not guilty to 334 counts of rape
KUALA LUMPUR: A man pleaded not guilty to a total of 334 counts of raping his young niece at a Sessions Court here.
Most of the offences allegedly took place at a flat in Ampang between January 2010 and March 2014, and three instances supposedly took place as recently as last month.
The girl was five years old when the alleged rapes started and is now 13. The unemployed man was arrested on Jan 22 after a report was lodged by a family member.
He will be brought to court on Monday to face 229 other charges of raping the girl’s sister (now aged 17) and another of attempting to rape the victims’ younger sister, now aged 10.
Clad in a blue, long sleeved Tshirt and jeans, the 46yearold was led into the court at 10.50am yesterday.
All the charges under Section 376B of the Penal Code for incest were read out before Sessions Judge Mohamad Kamil Nizam.
Throughout the day, the man remained calm, only indicating that he understood the charges and that he pleaded not guilty.
In the morning, 40 charges were read out before the judge allowed a 10 minute break at 11.10am. Then 160 charges were read out, with a second 10 minute recess in between.
The judge then adjourned the proceedings to 3.05pm and the remaining charges were read out.
Two interpreters took turns to read out the charges in batches of 20 till 3.45pm.
At some point, the accused and interpreters started coughing and had to pause for sips of water during the proceedings.
Two Deputy Public Prosecutors were in charge of the case – Nadiah Malek Fauzie in the morning and Raihanah Abdul Razak in the later part of the day.
The accused was represented by Muhammad Amin Abdullah.
DPP Raihanah urged the court not to grant bail, saying it would adversely affect the victim who was related to the man and that the case was of public interest.
Defence counsel Muhammad Amin argued that his client had injuries requiring regular medical attention, adding that he depended on his Socso income.
The judge denied bail, saying that he was concerned with the negative effect on the victims if bail was allowed. The court fixed March 13 for mention of the case.