2007 09: Man rapes stepdaughter due to 'emotional distress'

The Star online. News. Nation. Tuesday September 11, 2007

By M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: A taxi driver, who raped his stepdaughter, claimed it was due to emotional distress after a month-long squabble with his wife.

He was sentenced to 12 years' jail and ordered to be whipped five times.

The Indonesian, with Malaysian PR status, was ordered to serve his jail term from the date of arrest on April 16, last year.

Before sentencing him, Sessions Court judge Datin Anita Harun said she was sad to come across a situation where the man's family still ask to give him a second chance for his actions.

At the start of court proceedings on Tuesday, the girl who was seated in the public gallery, cried and wiped her tears with her hands when a court interpreter read the facts of the case. She sobbed further upon hearing the court verdict and had to step out of the courtroom where she was consoled by her mother.

According to the facts of the case, the 45-year-old man raped his stepdaughter in their house in Cheras after she returned from school at about 4.30pm on April 14 last year.

The 12-year-old girl was said to have entered her room to do her schoolwork. The accused went inside her room and pulled her into his bedroom.

She tried to fight back but to no avail. In his second attempt, he succeeded in pulling down her trousers, before raping her.

When she left his bedroom, he told her not to tell her mother, who was away working at a factory.

The next day, the girl told her mother and lodged a police report a day later.

Pleading for leniency earlier, lawyer Shaun Tan Kee Shaan said the accused had a squabble with his wife for a month and that his client has suffered emotional distress during the period.

Tan said the accused had raped the girl due to his mental state at that time.

DPP Nor Asma Ahmad, however, pressed for a deterrent sentence saying that the accused was supposed to protect the girl, but instead had ruined her future.

"The girl suffered trauma because of his sinful actions," she said, adding that the court had to take into account that elements of force were present in the case.

She said the court had to take judicial notice that incest was rampant in the country and that it could clearly be seen from the statistics released by the police that there is continuous increase in the number of rape cases each year.