A three-member bench chaired by Justice Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim said the sentence imposed by the sessions court on the 38-year-old man was not manifestly excessive even though he had entered a guilty plea.
“The punishment of rape carries a maximum 30-year imprisonment term, so we see no reason to disturb (the sentence),” he said.
Also on the panel hearing the appeal were Justices Azman Abdullah and Noorin Badaruddin.
Ahmad said the court also gave serious consideration to the fact that the 14-year-old girl had a learning disability.
The court was told that the man had also pleaded guilty to raping an older daughter and had been sentenced to 25 years in jail and ordered to be given 10 strokes of the rotan.
“As a father, you took the opportunity to commit the offence instead of protecting her. This is his second offence after raping her sister,” Ahmad said, noting that cases of family members involved in such a heinous crime were still rampant.
The father of four committed the offence on the younger girl at a house in the Sabak Bernam district in Selangor on Oct 11 last year.
The sentence was imposed by the Klang sessions court on Nov 1 last year. The court also ordered that the man be supervised by the police for a further two years after his release from prison.
The sessions court had also ordered that the man’s sentences be served consecutively, with his second sentence for raping the 16-year-old girl to begin only after the completion of the first sentence.
On Jan 31 this year, the High Court dismissed the man’s appeal against his sentence on the 14-year-old.
Lawyer Izleen Ismail today submitted that his client would serve a total of 50 years and 20 strokes of rotan and leave prison when he was 87 years old if the one-third remission for good behaviour is not taken into account.
“The sessions court judge did not mete out the sentence according to law by looking into his background and going through the victim’s impact statement,” she said.
Izleen said the long jail term would have a crushing effect on the appellant.
Deputy public prosecutor Aznee Salmie Ahmad said the appeal should be dismissed as the sessions court judge had taken public interest into consideration.
“The sentencing trend for cases involving a double rape is 25 years jail and 12 strokes of the rotan,” she said.