A man was sentenced to 48 years' jail and to be given 24 strokes of the cane by the Special Court For Sexual Crimes Against Children after he pleaded guilty to committing 623 sexual crimes, including sodomy, on his 15-year-old daughter.

The 36-year-old man pleaded guilty to 591 sodomy charges, 30 charges for committing sexual physical contact, one rape charge and another for sexually abusing the girl, who is his eldest daughter.

Judge Yong Zarida Sazali sentenced the man, who is a unit trust agent, to 28 years' imprisonment for rape, 20 years for sexual abuse and 20 years jail on each count for committing sexual physical contact on the girl, to be served concurrently from the date of his arrest last July 26, meaning only 28 years.

For the 591 sodomy charges, he was sentenced to 20 years' jail on each count, also to be served concurrently, but after he had completed serving the 28 year's jail.

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The man was charged with committing the offences in the master bedroom of his house in Petaling Jaya between January and July this year.

The charges were made under Section 377C of the Penal Code, Section 14/16 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, Section 31(1)(a) and Section 31(1)(b) of the Child Act 2016, and Section 376A of the Penal Code.

Yong Zarida also ordered him to be given 24 strokes of the cane for offences involving sodomy, physical sexual contact and rape.

She also ordered the man to undergo counselling for 10 years and to be placed under police supervision for three years upon completing his jail time, as well as to pay RM10,000 in compensation to the girl, in default 12 months' jail.

"The accused is also placed on a good behaviour bond for five years with bail of RM10,000 in one surety and to carry out community service for 240 hours in six months," said added.

The man looked calm, with his head bowed, when Yong Zarida handed down the sentences. He also acknowledged the facts read out to him by deputy public prosecutor Nordalina Ali.

The man, who has three daughters, is divorced from the children's mother, but he had full custody of the eldest child.

According to the facts of the case, the victim went to her mother's house at 5.30 pm last July 25 and she was depressed, but the mother, who is the complainant in the case, did not ask her daughter the reason she was in such a state, but the girl told her mother that the man wanted to take her two sisters to stay with him, which shocked the woman as they had agreed on the custody of the children.

The victim was staying with her father since early January this year.

According to the victim, her father came to her for the first time in Makkah when they went to perform the umrah.

She said it happened at 1 am on April 3, 2015 when she was sleeping in her hotel room. The man committed unnatural sex on her, who was 13 years-old then, but she was not able to do anything because he mouth was closed.

It happened again after the man was divorced from the wife, from January until July 21 this year, three times a day from 6 am to 7 am, 1pm to 2 pm and 11 pm until past midnight.

The girl was sodomised mercilessly for 591 times, and on one occasion on July 21, he raped her.

She did not tell her ordeal to her mother for fear that she would be scolded and accused of lying as the man was her biological father, but decided to tell the truth after the man expressed his intention to bring her two sisters to stay with him and feared that the man would also do the same to her sisters.

During the girl's stay with the father, her movement was closely monitored.

"The accused sent and picked up the victim, who is in Form Three, from school. The girl's academic performance was weak and she was a loner in school. She was referred to University Malaya Medical Centre and the medical report confirmed that there were old tears at her anus and vagina," said Nordalina.

After the facts of the case was read out in court, media members and the public who were in the court room were asked to leave to allow for a video session of the victim reading out her "Victim Impact Statement" (VIS) and this was followed by mitigation by the accused.

It was learnt that the accused was in tears when the girl read her 20-minutes VIS. Also present in the court was a brother of the accused.

In mitigation, the accused, who was unrepresented, said he was remorse and admiitted that what he did was wrong, but he was not able to control himself and apologised for his doing.

Deputy public prosecutor Aimi Syazwani Sarmin, who also prosecuted in the case, requested for a severe sentence, saying that the offences committed were serious and left a deep trauma on the victim.

She said the case also received wide coverage from the local and foreign media. -- BERNAMA

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