A 43-year old after-sales manager was sentenced to 17 years in prison and 24 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to five charges for offences involving the outrage of modesty and the sexual penetration of his 12-year old stepdaughter.
A further 10 charges were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
The man sexually exploited and groomed the victim over the course of a year by buying her presents and giving her money for each time she performed sexual acts on him such.
According to investigations, the victim and her mother and brother stayed together with the man and she developed a close relationship with him after some time.
Even though the victim regarded the man as her father, he would watch pornographic movies on his laptop together with the victim.
During the course of the offences, he had tried to rape her and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
The man had also manipulated the victim by telling her that the sexual acts were form of showing her love to him.
The offences were only discovered when the victim was caught stealing from schoolmate and she subsequently revealed to her school teacher that the man had been sexually abusing her.
The Court took the view that a severe sentence was warranted because the man had systematically preyed on and repeatedly exploited his naïve, impressionable and vulnerable daughter who would possibly long-term emotional and psychological harm.
More information on the case may be found here.