KUALA LUMPUR: The revolting news of the father who allegedly sodomised his teenage daughter has attracted news coverage in this region and beyond.
Various wire services, newspapers and portals around the world picked up the story, which has drawn much interest and ire among Malaysians and international news consumers due to the nature of the offence.
Singapore-based Asia One highlighted the astonishing length of the charge sheet against the 36-year-old unit trust agent who pleaded not guilty for allegedly sodomising his 15-year-old daughter “more than 200 times in the first three months of this year”. The Straits Times reported that the accused also faced “one count of rape and 30 counts of committing physical sexual assault without intercourse on the girl since she was 13”.
A report by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the case’s court proceedings was picked up by Singapore’s Channel News Asia, Hong Kong based South China Morning Post, and Philippine’s ABS-CBN News.
Elsewhere, it was also shared by UK’s The Sun, This is Money (UK Daily Mail’s financial website), Middle Eastern Al-Arabiya, as well as Nigerian Naija News and the Punch.
Accompanying the story were headlines such as “Malaysian accused of over 600 sex assaults against teenage daughter” and “Man faces up to 12,000 years in jail for sexual assault against daughter”.
The report stated that court officials took two days to read out all 626 charges against the offender, which included “599 charges of sodomy against the 15-year-old girl, as well as counts of incest, rape and other sex crimes”.
It also described the bespectacled man, in a grey T-shirt and blue trousers as being “calm when the charges were read in court”.
The man’s name, however, was not revealed in all of the reports to protect the victim’s identity.