2007 04: Man gets six years for rape

NST online. Local News. 10/04/07

By : Brenda Lim

IPOH: What was supposed to have been a happy occasion turned into a nightmare for a teenager who was raped on the eve of her 15th birthday.

Looking forward to her birthday, the girl had accepted an offer for a joyride from a 28-year-old man.

But two hours later, she returned home in tears.

The man had dropped her off at a shopping centre after raping her. She walked home and told her mother what had happened.

Yesterday, her rapist, Zuleffendi Taju Aripin of Plot 83E, Jalan Juara, Kampung Manjoi Baru, was sentenced by the Sessions Court to six years’ jail and three strokes of the rotan.

The storekeeper had pleaded guilty to raping the girl at a football field near Jalan 5, Jalan Kampar, Pasir Puteh, between 6.30pm and 8.15pm, on March 26.

"He is remorseful and apologises to the court and to the victim," said counsel Pardeep Singh Gill, when asking judge Tan Hooi Leng to impose a minimal sentence.

He said Zuleffendi, a divorcee with a 6-year-old child, had co-operated with the police and saved the court’s time and cost by pleading guilty.

Pardeep, acting on instructions of the Legal Aid Centre, said that this was Zuleffendi’s first offence. Zuleffendi, he said, earned RM400 a month.

Deputy public prosecutor How May Ling, however, asked for a deterrent sentence, saying the facts of the case showed that Zuleffendi had acted violently and caused injuries to the victim.

Public interest and the girl’s age should also be taken into consideration, she said.

How cited case laws on the physical and mental sufferings experienced by rape victims, including humiliation, degradation and guilt.

Zuleffendi’s actions should be punished as the "gravest crime against humanity", she said.

The offence carried a jail term of between five and 20 years and convicted offenders could also be whipped.

Tan ordered Zuleffendi to be jailed for six years from the date of his arrest on March 28.