By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, July 13: The Court of Appeal today allowed the sentence of a man found guilty to raping and outraging the modesty on his underage daughter, to be reduced from 115 years in jail and 20 strokes of whipping to 45 years in jail and 20 strokes of whipping.
The 52-year-old appellant was charged in four cases with six charges in total, where one charge was for outrage of modesty and five charges concerned incest on his daughter who was 12-years-old at the time.
Judges Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Datuk Lee Swee Seng and Datuk Supang Lian at a virtual hearing today unanimously sentenced the appellant to jail terms of five years, 10 years, 15 years and 15 years respectively for the various cases, with all jail terms to run concurrently.
On September 6, 2017, the appellant was sentenced to five years’ jail under Section 354 of the Penal code for outrage of modesty and 22 years’ jail and four strokes of the rotan under Section 376B(1) of the Penal Code for incest in the Sri Aman Sessions Court. The imprisonment terms were to run concurrently.
The prosecution was dissatisfied with the sentence and appealed to the High Court on June 5, 2018.
High Court Judicial Commissioner Celestina Stuel Galid allowed the prosecution’s appeal and set aside the order by the Sessions Court, substituting it with an order that the imprisonment terms are to run consecutively, meaning the appellant would serve a total jail term of 115 years and 20 strokes of the rotan.
He was found guilty of outraging the modesty of and raping his underage biological daughter since September 2014 when the victim was only 12-years-old at different locations in Saratok until July 2017.
DPP Tengku Intan Suraya Tengku Ismail acted for the respondent while the appellant was represented by assigned counsel Simon Siah. — DayakDaily
