LIMBANG: The magistrate’s court here has fixed four days to hear a case involving a 72-year-old man, his son and three other relatives, who were charged with raping a member in the family.
Magistrate Mohd Hafizi Abdul Halim fixed hearing beginning Nov 20 when the case was brought pre-case trial management today.
The senior citizen, his 40-year-old son and three relatives, aged between 16 and 21, had claimed trial to 22 counts of raping and outraging the modesty of the victim on July 21.
The five accused were charged with committing the offence on the victim, who is now 12, at several locations in the village here between end of November last year and June this year.
They were charged under Section 376B(1) and Section 354 of the Penal Code for incest and outraging the modesty of the victim respectively.
According to the charge sheet, the victim is the granddaughter, daughter and relatives to the suspects.
This is one of the five incest cases recorded in the state this year.
The Sessions Court in Kota Samarahan near Kuching last month sentenced a 57-year-old farmer and his three sons to a total of 335 years’ jail for committing incest with the former’s two granddaughters between June 1, 2011 and July this year.
All of the accused including the victims' father, 42, and their two uncles, aged 26 and 28, were also slapped with 24 strokes of whipping each after they pleaded guilty to the charges. One of the victims, who is 19, is now pregnant, while her younger sister is 14.
Another farmer, 49, from Saratok was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment by the Sessions Court in Betong after he pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse and molesting his daughter between September 2014 and July this year.
The victim, who is the child in the family, was 12 when she was first sexually assaulted three years ago.
Earlier today, three suspects arrested for two separate incest cases have been remanded to assist police investigation into the alleged offences.
An unemployed man and his son, aged 53 and 25 respectively, who were arrested for allegedly raping the former’s seven-year-old granddaughter in Sibu have been remanded for seven days.
In the fifth case, a 38-year-old labourer has been remanded for five days to facilitate police investigation over allegation that the former had raped his teenage daughter, 15, in Sarikei last month.
