SANDAKAN: The Sessions Court here sentenced a Timorese man to 20 years’ jail and 20 strokes of the cane for raping his underage niece from 2009 to May 2014 at Gelora Estate Plantation, Simpang Tabung Haji, Kinabatangan.
Yohanes Kopong, 40, pleaded guilty before Judge Egusra Ali to committing the offence under Section 376 (3) of the Penal Code.
The accused is the brother of the victim’s father who was unemployed and lived with the victim’s family from 2009 to 2011.
The accused acted as guardian for the victim and her five young siblings while their parents went out to work.
The victim revealed that the accused had molested her since she was nine years old and had forced her to perform oral sex and had threatened to hit her siblings if she refused. The act was committed while the victim’s parents were out working.
Early in 2011, the accused got a job with a plantation company in Lahad Datu and moved out from the victim’s house, but he frequently came to the victim’s house and while staying with them, he took the opportunity to rape the victim.
The victim was raped four times in 2011. In 2012, the accused raped the victim three times at the victim’s house, and in 2013, she was raped four times by the accused.
The accused had continuously threatened the victim by saying he would kill her parents if she refused to have intercourse with him.
In 2014, the victim was raped three times by the accused at her house while her family members were sleeping.
The victim recalled that May 31, was the last time she was raped by the accused.
On August 29, the victim revealed the incidents to her mother as the victim’s mother became aware of the victim’s bodily changes.
A police report was then lodged by the victim and her parents on September 3.
A medical check-up showed that the 14 year-old victim is now seven months pregnant.
Deputy public prosecutor Fillanny Mohd. Siji prosecuted.