Corpun file 11649

Daily Express, Kota Kinabalu, 15 July 2003

Man jailed 55 years for raping daughter, neighbour's daughters

Kota Kinabalu: A 36-year-old farmer from Keningau was on Monday jailed 55 years and four months and ordered to be given 24 lashes of the cane for raping his daughter and his neighbour's two daughters.

Sessions Court Judge, Datuk Nurchaya Arshad, meted out the sentence after he admitted to four counts of the offence at a village in Sook, Keningau, between 1999 and May this year.

On the first and second count of raping his 11-year-old daughter in 2001 and in May 2003, he was sentenced to 13 years and 10 months' jail each. He was ordered to receive six lashes of the rotan on each count.

The court also sentenced the man to 13 years and 10 months' jail plus six lashes for each count of raping his neighbour's daughters, aged 11 and 13 between 2001 and 2002 and 1999 and 2000.

Nurchaya ordered the farmer to serve the jail terms consecutively.

The first and second charges were framed under Section 376B of the Penal Code, which provides for imprisonment of between six years and 20 years and whipping on conviction.

The third and fourth counts, which were framed under Section 376 of the same Code, each carries a jail term of between five years and 20 years and whipping on conviction.

Earlier, Prosecuting Officer Chief Inspector Kenneth Oliver Samuel told the court that the man had raped his daughter once at a padi hut when she was nine in 2001 and three times in May this year.

He warned her not to tell anyone but the girl related her ordeal to her friend who later informed her aunt of what had transpired.

The man was arrested on June 17 this year following a report lodged by his daughter's teacher.

During the course of investigation, the man also confessed to raping his neighbour's two daughters while they were aged nine and 10.

The man raped the girls several times separately at different locations, at a padi hut, orchard hut and at their house while their parents and siblings were not around.

The girls did not relate the incident to anyone out of fear of the man who had threatened to harm them.

The man also confessed to inducing the girls into silence by giving them money and toys.

Corpun file 11635

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 19 July 2003

Rafidah: Stop copycat perverts

By Shahanaaz Habib

KUALA LUMPUR: Wanita Umno [ladies' wing of ruling party - C.F.] has expressed its concern over recent cases of rape, gang rapes and incest, fearing that it may spur other groups of perverts to follow suit if they were not checked now.

Its chief Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, who described these acts as "sickening," said they could have a "demonstration effect."

"If we do not address this now, other groups of perverts may think this is the thing to do and that it is very macho to rape women. And that it is very macho to do something out of the ordinary. They may even idol worship those who do this.

"I'm serious. All it needs is 100 people thinking like that. We have to stop it so that it will not have a demonstration effect," she said after chairing a Wanita Umno meeting yesterday.

Referring to a recent case reported in the media, Rafidah said there must be "something wrong in our society" when a grandfather who was supposed to teach religion did not respect a nine-year-old child.

She said in today's world the people were exposed to the negative effects of globalisation such as pornography and uncensored VCDs and some got aroused by them, adding that it was therefore necessary to re-orientate the people on basic family values.

These values include men and women respecting each other, women respecting themselves and the younger people respecting the older ones.

"If every father and mother teaches their children never to disrespect a woman, family member or otherwise, then there would not be incest or rape and they would not fondle women because they are imbibed with values," she said.

Rafidah called on men to hold seminars and talks focusing on family values to bring down the number of crimes committed against women.

While women's groups always held seminars and workshops on these issues, she said their male counterparts did not.

She said prevention was better than punishment because a woman is "spoilt" once she is raped.

"But the man, he is not spoilt. I wish they would whip in the right places so that he would be 'spoilt' forever.

Whipping his buttocks won't help because it is not the buttocks that buat kerja (committed the act)," she stressed.

She said laws and regulations were supplementary to basic values because if a person had no basic values, he would still violate the law.