2007 06: Judge flays man for raping daughter

The Star online. News. Courts. Tuesday June 26, 2007

SHAH ALAM: A Sessions Court judge told a factory worker convicted of raping his daughter that he was like “an animal that eats its young”.

“It is a dreadful act,” Judge Azimah Omar told the 40-year-old man, who has four other children.

“How could you do this? She is too young. She is your own daughter, who is only three.

“She is supposed to get all the protection from her father,” scolded the judge.

She slapped the factory worker with the maximum jail sentence of 40 years – 20 years on each of two rape charges against him.

She also ordered him to be given 24 strokes of the rotan – 12 whippings for each of the two charges – for raping the three-year-old child two years ago.

The man had pleaded guilty to the offence, committed at a house in Kampung Paya Gombak, Batu 19, Kuang, on March 19, 2005, and Nov 9 the same year.

He was detained on June 27 last year and charged in July.

In delivering her judgment, Judge Azimah said the man must be given a deterrent sentence for the “unforgivable and disgusting act”.

She added that pleading guilty could not be a mitigating factor.

“He didn’t even have compassion for his own daughter and took advantage of the young kid,” she said, adding that the girl would have a black page in her life.

The judge said it was not a mere punishment for the accused but also a stern warning to all fathers who might do such things to their own flesh and blood.

According to the facts of the case, the man first raped the child in a bedroom at between 8am and 8.30am on March 19, 2005. His wife caught him in the act.

The other incident on the night of Nov 9 occurred in the living room.

The child's mother saw the girl lying naked next to her father, who was also naked.

He told his wife it was coconut oil when the mother noticed some liquid on the girl’s private part and questioned him.

Unsatisfied with the answer, his wife took the girl to a hospital and later lodged a police report.
DPP Hana Hadinah S. Mohd Ghazali prosecuted, while lawyer Suzian Mukhtar represented the accused.