PUTRAJAYA — A father in Selangor was sentenced to 45 years' jail and 24 strokes of rotan after he pleaded guilty to 38 charges of sexually assaulting, attempting to rape, and committing unnatural sex on his 14-year-old daughter.

Judge of the Sexual Crimes Court Against Children Yong Zarida Sazali meted out the sentence against the 35-year-old burger seller after he admitted committing the acts on his daughter since she was 12-years-old.

The judge ordered the sentence to begin from the date of his arrest on July 12.

In her judgment, Judge Yong Zarida also ordered the accused to undergo counselling for 10 years and be put under police supervision for three years after his release.

The father of five pleaded guilty to 26 charges of sexually assaulting his daughter, four charges of attempted rape, and eight charges of committing unnatural sex.

The charges were framed under Section 14(a) of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, read together with Section 16 of the same Act.

All the offences were committed at an apartment unit, a house, in a car and at a hotel room in Puncak Alam, Selangor between 2am and 5am.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norazalina Razali asked for the court to impose a deterrent sentence.

“The victim had to struggle to defend herself from being raped by him, leading her to trying to kill herself a few times,” she said.

She added that the remorse shown by the father should not be considered as in October 2018, the victim had told her mother about him and he promised not to do it again, but he broke his promise and kept assaulting her until recently.

According to the facts, on July 7, 2017, the victim was asleep when he forced himself on her and tried to rape her but was unsuccessful.

The victim also admitted to have been assaulted since she was 12 when her family members were asleep or were not at home.

In mitigation the accused asked the court to give a lenient sentence as he has children who are still in school and two who were still toddlers.

“I sell burgers and earn about RM90 (S$30) income (daily) and my wife is not working. I also don’t have any savings. I regret my action and I want to repent,” he said. NEW STRAITS TIMES