Father gets eight years for incest

A FATHER who committed incest with his 12-year-old daughter and then accused her of conspiring with his common-law wife to make up the story, was yesterday sentenced to eight years' jail.

Passing sentence, Deputy Judge Chan said the defendant's act struck at the very fabric of society as he had destroyed the family relationship.

The 46-year-old father had aggravated the matter by calling his daughter a liar in public, accusing her of conspiring with his common-law wife and her godparents to frame him, causing her further psychological damage.

He had called his common-law wife a cheat, a triad and an adulteress and portrayed himself as a victim of the most malicious conspiracy to take the daughter away from him.

A psychologist found the daughter had lost her basic trust in her close relatives because her father denied everything in court. She had low self-esteem and thought of using her body for easy money, the judge said.

The defendant was motivated solely by lustful desires and he used his daughter as an outlet for his sexual inclinations, he added.

He had earlier been convicted of two counts of attempted incest in March last year and one of incest in April last year by a High Court jury. He was acquitted of 12 other similar counts when the girl was seven and nine.