PUTRAJAYA (Bernama): The Court of Appeal here on Tuesday (Sept 14) ordered a former soldier who was found guilty of raping and sodomising his daugther five years ago to be sentenced to 24 years in jail, effective on Tuesday.

       The three-judge panel, led by judge Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, unanimously ordered that the 18-year and six-year concurrent sentences handed down by the Johor Bahru Sessions Court be run consecutively instead.

       The 45-year-old man had previously been given two concurrent sentences of 18 years’ jail with 10 strokes of the rotan and another six years with five lashes by the Johor Bahru Sessions Court on Nov 27, 2018 after being found guilty of raping and sodomising his then 17-year-old daughter.

       The Johor Bahru High Court subsequently affirmed the conviction and sentence on June 21, 2020.

       Abdul Karim, in his judgement, said the Sessions Court judge and High Court judge had both erred when they ruled that the jail sentences should run concurrently.

       "The rape and sodomy charges are different and thus the sentences should be consecutively. Therefore, the court sets aside the concurrent jail sentences ruled by both previous courts,” he said after allowing a cross-appeal by the prosecution regarding the man’s 18-year jail sentence.

       Abdul Karim, along with Datuk Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Datuk Lee Heng Cheong, however, rejected the man’s appeal as the appellant’s plea was without merit.

       "Both the Sessions Court judge and the High Court judge did not err from the law and fact to justify this court’s intervention on both their rulings. Therefore, the appeal is dismissed and the High Court judge’s ruling is affirmed,” Abdul Karim ruled.

       Based on the two charges, the man had committed the acts at a house in Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru at 2.30am on March 15, 2016.

       The man was charged with rape under Section 376 (B) of the Penal Code while the sodomy charge was under Section 377 (B) of the same act.

       The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Siew Wee while lawyer Noordin Hussin represented the appellant.- Bernama