A man who was found guilty of repeatedly raping his daughter starting from when she was 10-years-old was yesterday jailed for 18 years.
The 77-year-old defendant, identified in court as YHL, drew the ire of the judge last month when he yelled from the dock that he didn’t rape his daughter or assault his wife, and accused him of being unprofessional, which prompted the judge to shout back: “If you think you can scare me with your loud voice, you are wrong.”
Ming Pao reported that in his closing remarks to the court, justice Andrew Chan said that the duty of a father is to protect his children. Chan added that not only did YHL fail to protect his daughter, he gravely harmed her.
Chan went on to say that YHL took advantage of his daughter’s quiet and obedient demeanour by continuing to rape the child, and that his failure to care for her had destroyed the family. He added the defendant’s actions would cast a shadow on her for the rest of her life.
Chan also slammed YHL for his lack of remorse, which was shown in attempts to prevent his wife and daughter from testifying, and even going as far as representing himself in court so that he could personally cross-examine the pair, on.cc reports.
According to Ming Pao, at one point during the sentencing he tried to directly address reporters in the court room, which prompted Chan to interrupt him and say “this is not a press conference,” to which the defendant pleaded for leniency saying he was old and he suffered from diabetes.
Chan also asked police and prosecutors to look into whether or not YHL in his attempts to silence witnesses — including sending three letters to his daughter — committed other crimes like contempt of court and perverting the course of justice.
Among his many interruptions, the defendant called out to the judge and demanded he “implement the common law system”, whereby the prosecution needs to prove its case against him beyond any reasonable doubt.
Well, looks like they did.
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