KUCHING: Sarawak was among four states in the country with the highest rape cases last year, said Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail.
The state was ranked fourth behind Selangor (first), Johor (second) and Sabah (third) last year, with a total of 140 cases.
“This year, Sarawak recorded a total of 15 rape cases in the first two months compared to last year’s 19 in the same period.
“Most of the cases involved underage victims and were reported by doctors. We recorded a case involving a child under 12 years old and 14 cases involving teenagers aged between 15 and 16 ,” he said in an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune and its sister paper Suara Sarawak last Friday.
Aidi added that most of the rapists were known to the victims — they were either friends or close acquaintances.
When asked about the causes, he disclosed that it was due to social media influence, lack of monitoring from parents, poverty, lack of sexual awareness as well as customary marriages.
“Parents need to monitor their children’s activities, especially their daughters, what kind of friends they have and so on.
“Like now, most students are not going to school and these incidents can happen at home when they (children) bring their friends back when their parents are not home.”
On the rape case at the Miri police station lockup, Aidi said it was still on trial and that the two policemen had been charged under the Child Act 2001.
“All police lockups should be equipped with closed circuit televisions. However, in Miri, the decoder was broken and Bukit Aman has already appointed a contractor to repair it.
“The decoder was already there but it was not installed due to the pandemic. We were in the process of replacing the decoder and then, the incident happened. But now this decoder has been replaced.”
