KUALA LUMPUR - A decorated army corporal has been jailed a total of 140 years for nine counts of raping and molesting his two minor daughters.

The Sessions Court also ordered that he be caned 40 times for the offences to which he pleaded guilty.

However, the 43-year-old soldier will only serve 25 years as his sentence is set to run concurrently. The jail term starts from the date of his arrest on June 25 last year.

In passing sentence, Judge Fathiyah Idris described his offence as despicable, as his young daughters needed his guidance and protection.

She was of the opinion that if the girls had not informed their counselling teacher of his actions, he would have continued raping and molesting them.

She also ordered him to undergo counselling during his sentence and to a two-year observation period after he completes his jail term.

The father of five had earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of raping and two counts of molesting his older daughter, now age 16, at their home in Sentul between Jan 2006 and June last year.

He had also pleaded guilty to four counts of molesting his second daughter, now age 15, at their home between 2006 and May 2008.

According to the statement of facts, all the incidents happened without the knowledge of the girls? mother, who works as an assistant in a private clinic.

The older girl was said to have been repeatedly raped but she could not remember all the incidents.

She remembered an incident in May 2007, when her father raped her while she was sleeping in her room, and another time in May 2008, when he had asked her to shave his back in the bathroom.

As for the younger daughter, the statement said he had repeatedly molested her by grabbing her breasts and rubbing his private parts against hers.

On June 24 last year, the older girl had confided in her counselling teacher, who then brought both girls to lodge a police report.

Medical checks found the older girl having old hymen tear, while her younger sister?s hymen was intact. Their father was arrested the next day at about 3pm at their home.

During mitigation, defence counsel P. Gunalan said the accused had received a certificate (Sijil Perkhidmatan Cemerlang) among other medals for his 21 years of outstanding service in the army and to the Malaysian people.

Deputy public prosecutor Noor Aishah KM Abu Bakar, however, asked the court to mete out the maximum sentence against the accused as his crime was severe.

-The Star/Asia News Network