By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, March 18: A former watchman of Bau District Health Department today appealed his recent sentence of 20 years’ jail time and 10 strokes of the rotan for raping his 10-year-old foster daughter.
The appellant, 50, requested for an adjournment to seek the assistance of the National Legal Aid Foundation (YBGK). High Court Judge Ravinthran Paramaguru fixed April 23 to hear the case.
The appellant, who is also the victim’s brother-in-law, was slapped with two charges at two Sessions Courts and was sentenced to a total of imprisonment of 35 years and 13 strokes of rotan.
But he is only appealing the sentence for the first charge, where he was sentenced to jail for 20 years and to be caned 10 times on Feb 11, 2019, after he pleaded guilty to the charge. He was not represented when he made the guilty plea.
For that charge, which is framed under Section 376(2)(e) of the Penal Code, he was alleged to have raped his foster daughter between January 2017 and December 2017 at a house in Bau. This section of the Code provides for imprisonment of not less than 10 years and not more than 30 years and whipping.
For the second charge, he was sentenced to jail for 15 years and 3 strokes of the rotan in 2018 for touching and sucking his victim’s breast in 2018 in the guard room of Bau Health Department.
For this offence, he was charged under Subsection 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 and punishable under Section 14 of the same Act, which carries imprisonment of not more than 20 years and whipping. — DayakDaily
