Malaysian father given 48-year jail sentence for sexually assaulting daughter more than 600 times

A 36-year-old Malaysian man, dubbed as "monster dad", has been given 48 years in jail for sexually assaulting his daughter more than 600 times. The man, whose identity has been withheld to protect the victim, has pleaded guilty to all the charges.

The divorcee faced 623 charges of sexual crimes, including incest, sodomy and rape of his daughter over a period of two years. The father-of-three committed the crimes against his eldest daughter, who was just 13 years old at the time, after he separated from his wife in 2015.

The convict appeared calm when Judge Yong Zarida was reading out the sentence given to him in a special court for sexual crimes on Friday (8 September). While he has been given 28 years for committing incest, physical sexual assault and neglect of his child, 20 years were awarded for sodomising the victim.

He will also receive 24 lashes as part of the sentence.

The head of the accused was fully covered when he was brought to court, with the session attended by his younger brother and family members.

Earlier, it was said that he could face up to 12,000 years in prison if he was found guilty of all the charges framed against him.

"I hope this case can increase the public awareness about crimes against children," Rohani Abdul Karim, Malaysia's Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said following the judicial proceedings.

According to the charges filed against the accused, he first sexually assaulted his daughter in a hotel in Mecca while they were on a pilgrimage in 2015. Following that incident, he repeatedly raped and abused his daughter in his apartment for more than two years, sometimes more than once a day.

The daughter's ordeal came to light only when her father attempted to take his two younger daughters to also live with him.