Malaysian man faces 12,000 years in prison for more than 600 counts of raping his daughter

Offences were allegedly committed during a six month period when the teenager lived with her father

A special court for sex crimes against children was launched in Malaysia this year after a spate of heinous sex crimes against children came to light (Getty)

A man in Malaysia is facing a potential prison sentence of 12,000 years if convicted of more than 600 charges of rape and other sexual assaults against his teenage daughter.

Court officials in Kuala Lumpur took two full days to read out all 646 charges against the 36-year-old man, who is divorced.

He is charged with 599 counts of sodomy against his 15-year-old daughter, as well as counts of incest, rape and other sex crimes, all allegedly committed in a sixth month period when the girl was living with him.

The defendant, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his daughter, denies all charges and the case will now proceed to trial.

“He faces a prison sentence of over 12,000 years,” Aimi Syazwani, a deputy public prosecutor, told AFP at a newly-established special court for sex crimes against children in the administrative capital, Putrajaya.

For each charge of sodomy, the defendant could be punished with a maximum jail term of 20 years, as well as caning.

He faces a rape charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and 30 other charges of sexual assault, each punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

Judge Yong Zarida Sazali denied the man bail after prosecutors warned there was a danger of him fleeing or intimidating witnesses.

The defendant, who worked selling investment products, was arrested in July this year after the girl’s mother went to the police.

The defendant has other children, and the alleged victim is his eldest daughter. He is said to have had custody of her from when he and the child’s mother divorced two years ago.

The court dedicated to sexual crimes against children was launched in Malaysia in June after a spate of heinous sexual crimes in the Southeast Asian country.

The court will focus on offences such as child pornography, child grooming and child sexual assault in tandem with the Sexual Offences Against Children Act passed earlier this year.

Child marriage has not been criminalised in the Muslim-majority country, however, after an MP claimed that girls as young as nine are “physically and spiritually” ready for marriage.