Man, 60, loses appeal against 15-year jail sentence for raping stepdaughter

 

The former buggy driver was also ordered to go for rehabilitation counselling for three years and to be placed under police supervision for three years after serving his jail term.

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here today upheld the 15-year jail sentence imposed on a 60-year-old man for raping his stepdaughter.

This was after the man, a retired buggy driver, lost his final appeal to set aside his conviction and jail sentence.

A three-member panel, comprising Justices Has Zanah Mehat, Ahmad Nasfy Yasin and Nordin Hassan, also ordered the man to be whipped twice.

In delivering the court’s decision, Has Zanah said the sessions court judge had not erred in convicting the man of rape. This was affirmed later by the High Court.

“The 15-year jail sentence for the rape offence, based on the facts of the case, is appropriate,” she said in dismissing the man’s appeal against his conviction and sentence.

She, however, said the High Court erred when it set aside the sessions court’s decision in imposing whipping on the man, as Section 289 of the Criminal Procedure Code allows whipping for a person aged above 50 convicted of rape offences.

The man was found guilty by the sessions court on Nov 12, 2019 and was sentenced to 18 years’ jail and five strokes of the rotan for raping his stepdaughter, who was 17 years old then, in a house in Bandar Kinrara, Puchong, Selangor, in October 2017.

He was also ordered to go for rehabilitation counselling for three years and to be placed under police supervision for three years after he had completed serving his jail term.

On Oct 5 last year, the High Court rejected his appeal against his conviction, but reduced his jail sentence from 18 years to 15 years and set aside the five strokes of the rotan.

Lawyer Hamdan Hamzah represented the man while deputy public prosecutor Aznee Salmie Ahmad appeared for the prosecution. - FMT