Two fathers in separate court cases will spend their old age in prison after failing to persuade the Court of Appeal yesterday to reduce the jail and whipping sentences meted out to them for committing incest.
Federal Court judge Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusof, chairing the three-man panel, respectively dismissed the duo’s final appeals.
He sat on the panel with Court of Appeal judges Ahmad Ma’arop and Clement Allan Skinner.
In the first case, a 50-year-old man who pleaded guilty to two charges of committing incest on his 17-year-old daughter at a house in Kampung Pahat Dalam, Gerik, Perak on Dec 17, 2007 and July 5, 2009, three years ago, will serve 20 years’ jail and be given 20 strokes of the rotan.
He was previously sentenced to 13 years’ jail and given 10 strokes for the first charge and 15 years’ jail and another 10 strokes for the second charge by the Taiping Sessions Court.
However, the Taiping High Court enhanced the jail term to 20 years for each charge upon appeal by the prosecution on the jail term. The man was ordered to serve the jail term concurrently.
In the second case, the same panel also upheld the Kota Bahru Sessions Court’s decision to jail a 60-year-old man for a total of 30 years and impose 20 strokes of the rotan when he pleaded guilty to two charges of incest on his 20-year-old daughter at a house in Kampung Tasek Pauh, Pasir Puteh, Kelantan on Feb 8 and 9, 2009.
The man who earns his living by doing “village work” was sentenced to 15 years’ jail and given 10 strokes of rotan for each charge and was ordered to serve the term, consecutively.
The Kota Bahru High Court upheld the Sessions Court’s decision.
Both men were not spared the rod because their offences took place after the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) on Sept 7, 2007 which states that sexual offenders above 50 years old are liable for whipping, unlike the previous provision of the CPC.
– Bernama
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