Woman allegedly raped by Sarikei police officer

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SIBU: A 19-year-old victim who works as a shop assistant in a Kuching mall was allegedly raped in a toilet by a policeman at Sarikei police station.

The victim accompanied by her elder sister yesterday came to seek help and advice from Lanang Member of Parliament Alice Lau at Democratic Action Party (DAP) office in Rejang Park here today.

At the press conference, Lau said the victim came back by bus to celebrate her elder sister’s birthday. She had travelled from Kuching to Sibu by from bus at 10pm on Oct 28.

The incident all started at about 4am on Oct 29 when the victim went to the toilet during a stop at a Sarikei bus terminal but the before she could find a toilet, the bus had left her behind, Lau said.

“Her belongings including her purse and handphone were left behind. So, she then went to stop a four-wheel drive to ask for help and met a guy who would send her to another bus terminal to look for the bus she was previously on, but their efforts were to no avail.

“This man told her that she should not wait here (at the bus terminal) because it is in the wee hours and unsafe.

“He said he would bring her to his office which is at the police station. At first she still acted normally as he had lent her his handphone to call her elder sister to pick up her belonging when the bus she was originally travelling in would reach Sibu.

She said her sister called back the man’s handphone number to inform that she got the belonging from the bus.

From then onwards, Lau said the man’s demeanour began to change and had allegedly started harassing her.

The victim under duress in the situation was forced to follow his instruction and fo to the police station’s toilet.

“This alleged rape case happened in the police station toilet where he was said to have sex with her.

“After that, he brought her to bus terminal and gave her RM30 to take bus to Sibu. Upon reaching Sibu, the victim told her sister of what had happened. Then they went to lodge a police report.”

Lau told that an identification parade was held as a police officer there thought she was lying and was trying to ascertain whether the suspect was a policeman or not.

He requested all the night shift police personnel to be at the identification parade.

She said the victim identified the suspect following the parade and her statement was recorded.

During the time, she said there were other police personnel who tried to persuade the victim’s sister to drop the case to give a chance to the suspect for he would be retiring in two or three years’ time.

But the victim’s sister refused.

Lau added that the victim was also brought for medical checkup at Sarikei hospital.

But unfortunately, she said the attending doctors said that there was no initial sign of been raped and official results are still pending a lab test.

It could be because the victim was having menses during the incident, she said.

Meanwhile, Lau claimed that she has already informed the deputy home minister about the case.

She said she would bring up this issue in the parliament sitting on Monday and push for the government to set up Independent Police Complaint and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) which was refused to be set up by the previous government.

She said in September the present Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammed has announced that IPCMC would be formed eventually so that his Commission could act as independent body to look into police complaint more effectively.

When this case happened, she said there would be more pressing need to push this IPCMC to be set up as soon as possible so as to zero in on police misconduct or abuse of power, she said.

“I hope with this IPCMC the public will have more confidence in our police force in future as they will be carrying the image of ‘Polis DiRaja Malaysia’,” she added.