A three-member bench, chaired by Kamaludin Md Said, however, reduced the number of strokes of the rotan from 48 to 30.

The bench, which also comprised judges M Gunalan and Hashim Hamzah, ordered the jail term to take effect from Nov 27, 2016.

Kamaludin said the custodial sentence imposed by the sessions court judge was not manifestly excessive.

The man was originally sentenced to 24 years’ jail and 16 strokes of the rotan for each of the offences, the jail term to run concurrently. However, the number of strokes will total 48.

Today, the Court of Appeal reduced the number of strokes for each offence to 10, the minimum provided under the law.

Gunalan said for the purposes of execution, the appellant, who is now 64, would be whipped a maximum of 24 times as provided for under Section 288 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

The bench also ruled that Section 289(c) of the CPC allowed a male more than 50 years old to be whipped for committing rape.

The offences were committed at a house in a village near Kota Bharu, Kelantan, between Nov 22 and Nov 24, 2016. The carpenter, a father of 12, had lived in the village after he was divorced from his wife.

The victim, then 15 years old, was the 10th child and used to visit him during the school holidays as a number of her siblings were staying with him.

Deputy public prosecutor Fauziah Daud represented the prosecution, and Usha Kulasegaran, from the National Legal Aid Foundation, appeared for the appellant.