Kota Kinabalu: A 48-year-old farmer who raped his 12-year-old daughter until she was pregnant, was jailed 26 years and ordered to be given 20 strokes of the cane.
Sessions Court Judge Azreena Aziz meted out the sentence to the man who pleaded guilty to two charges against him, Monday.
On the first count, the man was sentenced to 13 years plus 10 strokes of the cane for raping the child in January this year at 10pm at a house in Sipitang.
On the second count, he was jailed another 13 years and ordered to get another 10 strokes of the cane for repeating the offence in February this year at noon at a farm house at the same village.
He committed the offences under Section 376(3) of the Penal Code which provides for a jail term of between eight and 30 years, and whipping at least 10 strokes of the cane, on conviction.
The court ordered the man to serve the jail sentence consecutively from the date of his arrest on July 22 this year.
After completing the jail sentence, the man was ordered to be placed under police supervision for two years.
During mitigation, the man who was not represented, asked for leniency saying that he has a family at his village to look after as well as his sick mother.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Dk Afiqah Alya Ak Johari @ Pg Johari urged the court to impose a severe punishment in the form of deterrent to show that the offence was a very serious crime.
She added that the man was married but cannot control his lust and as a married man, he should be punished more severely.
Afiqah further submitted that the man had committed the offence towards his own daughter.
The court heard that on July 21 this year, a complainant who was on duty at a health clinic in Sipitang, was attending to a girl who claimed that she was coughing, vomiting and feeling pain in her stomach.
After examining the girl, the complainant found that the girl was pregnant about 22 weeks.
The complainant then lodged a police report and referred the girl to the emergency unit of the Sipitang hospital.
Following the police report, it was revealed that the 12-year-old girl was raped twice by her own father who was subsequently arrested.
