A worker gets 16 years and 10 strokes of the cane for raping his daughter

KOTA KINABALU: A sessions court on Saturday (September 28) sentenced a man to 16 years in prison for raping his daughter.

Sessions judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan also ordered the 36-year-old laborer to be given 10 strokes of the cane after finding him guilty of raping his now 12-year-old daughter.

The facts show that the man raped his daughter more than 10 times since she was eight years old, at the latest in early January at 1 a.m. in a house in Papar.

The investigation showed that the accused raped the victim from 2020 to the beginning of this year.

The rapes came to light when the victim told her ordeal to a friend and teacher, prompting her grandfather to file a police report, which led to the man’s arrest.

Further investigation also revealed that the man had threatened his daughter not to tell anyone about his crime.

The victim had been living with her father since her parents separated.

He committed a crime under Art. 376 section 3, often of the Criminal Code, which are punishable by imprisonment of 10 to 30 years, at least ten strokes of the cane, or both upon conviction.

In mitigation, the unrepresented man asked for leniency, but Deputy Prosecutor Nurul Shafeerah Mad Iskim insisted on a deterrent sentence due to the terrible nature of what he had done to his daughter.

“The accused is the biological father of the victim. It is his duty to protect his own flesh and blood, as his wife left them when the victim was only five years old. However, he betrayed the trust his daughter placed in him by raping her,” she said.