Monday July 21, 2008 MYT 4:28:34 PM

She was raped but didn't know it?

By CLARA CHOOI

IPOH: A High Court judge here is puzzled over why the police commenced a rape investigation when the victim, a religious teacher, did not complain of sexual assault.

The question arose Monday when the appeal of 23-year-old Azrul Faimi Othman against his sentence and conviction appeared before Justice V. T. Singham.

Azrul Faimi, who was found guilty by a lower court, was sentenced to a 12-year jail term and three strokes of the rotan for raping the teacher at her hostel room in Sekolah Agama Ma’ahad Al Aziz in Parit, on March 24, 2003, between 3.30am and 4.30am.

"I have studied his appeal records and from there, I saw that in the schoolteacher’s first police report lodged after the incident, she never said she had been raped.

"She only said that she had been robbed and physically attacked but not sexually,” said Justice Singham.

He added that according to the report, the schoolteacher, who was 26 at the time, had then been sent to the Changkat Melintang hospital for a medical examination.

"Why was she referred to the hospital to have her private parts examined in a case that did not involve rape?” questioned Justice Singham.

He added that it was even more troubling that the schoolteacher had only found out she had been raped after the doctor had told her so.

"Even then, she only lodged a police report that she had been raped nine days after she went to the doctor.

"This is a teacher and an adult. Surely she would have known if she had been raped.

"Even so, a third party was the one telling her she was raped. This is a strange situation, isn’t it?” he asked.

Justice Singham then asked Deputy Public Prosecutor Siti Fatimah Talib if a rape case could be built merely on DNA evidence since the other evidence were “all negative”.

According to the chemistry report, blood and seminal stains were found on the victim’s sarong and bed sheet whilst none were found on the swab sample taken from her private part.

Justice Singham fixed Aug 25 to re-mention the appeal to allow the DPP time to clarify the discrepancies to the court.

Defence counsel Meor Sha’azizi Meor Sha’ari told the court he would make a representation to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to change the rape charge under Section 376 to molest under Section 354 of the Penal Code.