Wives help man rape Saturday April 15, 2006 http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?

file=/2006/4/15/asia/13967571&sec=asia HE HAS multiple wives who gave him scores of children, including five teenage girls whom he raped repeatedly over a period of 18 months before one of them blew the whistle on him. The 45-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, had subverted parts of the Quran to justify incest. While conducting a religious lesson, he convinced his wives that he had ownership over his children, which included having sex with them. Several of his wives even helped him rape their daughters, the court was told on Thursday, in what is one of the most serious cases of sexual abuse in recent years. There were 43 charges levelled against the man, who preyed on his daughters when they were between 12 and 15 years old, from December 2003 to June last year. The litany of charges included rape, attempted rape, and aggravated rape, because some of the girls were below 14 and outrage of modesty. The prosecution said there could be more than 43 instances of abuse. He was only charged over incidents that the girls - now in the care of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports could recollect. Deputy Public Prosecutor Eugene Lee told the court: The incidents of abuse were so numerous that they were hard-pressed to keep count, much less remember the exact specifics of each incident. Likewise, the girls father too could not remember. The court heard on Thursday that he would send one of his wives to tell a girl to go to his bedroom. He would have sex with them even though they cried out in pain. Two later became pregnant and had to go for abortions. Finally, on June 24 last year, the oldest of the abused daughters reported her father to the police. He was arrested the next day. On Thursday, the stout, bespectacled man with greying hair pleaded guilty to nine of the charges against

him. Justice Tay Yong Kwang will take the remaining charges into consideration when he delivers sentence on Tuesday. The prosecution asked the judge to put the man away for a substantial period. The penalty for rape is a maximum of 20 years in jail and caning. For aggravated rape, the penalty is at least eight years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane. Said DPP Lee: In cases involving young persons, particularly ones own children, the courts have never shied away from imposing heavy sentences in order to send out a clear signal to all would-be offenders that there is zero tolerance for such heinous crimes. He noted that the man had planned his moves and had abused his daughters in the sanctity of their own home. The mans lawyer, Harold Seet, denied that his client had been motivated by lust. He said the patriarch, who ran his own firm, was stressed out by having to provide for his large family. To add to these worries, he learnt that the girls were behaving inappropriately with boys. He concluded that having sex with his daughters to satisfy them, so they would be less likely to go with others, was the lesser of two evils, said the lawyer. In response to The Straits Times queries, the prosecution declined to say whether charges would be brought against the wives who helped him. The Straits Times / Asia News Network