KOTA KINABALU: A 56-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment plus six strokes of the rotan for raping his seven-year-old granddaughter.
Sessions Court judge Elsie Primus meted out the sentence after the accused changed his plea to guilty in the middle of the trial.
The prosecution already called six witnesses to testify against the accused.
The man admitted to committing the offence at an oil palm plantation in a village in the Kota Marudu district in 2018.
The offence under Section 376(2) (e) of the Penal Code provides imprisonment between 10 and 30 years, and whipping upon conviction.
During mitigation, the unrepresented accused asked for a lenient sentence.
Deputy public prosecutor Siti Hajar Mazlan urged for a heavy punishment as a lesson taking into consideration the seriousness of the case.
She argued that the accused should protect his granddaughter and not harm her.
The court ordered the accused to serve his jail sentence from the date he was charged in court on Sept 27, 2022.
The accused, an Indonesian, was ordered to be referred to the Immigration Department after completing his sentence.