KUCHING: A 19-year-old boy broke into tears in the Sessions Court yesterday, after he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for statutory rape.
OFF TO PRISON: The rapist is escorted to prison by policemen after the passing of judgement.
The boy admitted that he raped an 11-year-old girl before judge Afidah Abdul Rahman who convicted him under Section 376(2)(e) of the Penal Code.
The section provides for up to 30 years’ imprisonment and possible whipping.
Clad in grey t-shirt, he cried and turned to look at his family members who were sitting in the back of the courtroom.
“Give me an opportunity to change because I have regretted what I had done.
“I pray for a lenient sentence. I have repented,” said the jobless Simunjan boy through an interpreter.
The family members could not hold back their tears upon learning the outcome of the case.
According to the brief facts of the case, last Oct 16 about 3.10pm the complainant who is also the victim’s father, said his daughter told him she had been raped by a man known as Adam.
About 3pm on the day of the incident, the accused went to Ranchan Waterfall in Serian to meet a girlfriend. There he met the little girl who is a friend of his girlfriend.
The three of them went swimming at the waterfall and later he sent the girlfriend home.
As there were three of them on the motorbike, the little girl had to sit in the middle.
After sending the girlfriend home, he took the little girl for a walk at an
oil palm plantation in Gedung where he later raped her.
He then dropped the girl not far from her house because he was afraid.
He also tried to avoid the girl and had not made any contact with her.
He was arrested about 8am, last Oct 17 at Gedong police beat station.
The court ordered his jail term to take effect from the date of his arrest.
The accused was not represented, while DPP Stella Augustine Druce prosecuted.