Woman imprisoned three years for assisting husband in rape of daughters
A 42-year-old female was sentenced on Wednesday morning to three years imprisonment for assisting and abetting her husband in sexually assaulting her two underaged daughters.
The beautician, dubbed “L.M.,” appeared in the High Court today before Judge Judianna Barnes Wai-ling.
The court learned that L.M. had twice forced her two daughters, who were aged 11 and 13 respectively then, to watch the intercourse process between herself and her second husband - the two girls’ stepfather - between 2018 to 2019 as she believed "it could make the daughters healthy and behave well” after being convinced by a "sorceress" she met on the Internet.
The defendant also admitted that she had asked her husband to sexually assault the daughters in 2019 and forced the younger daughter, dubbed as "X", to undress on camera for her to take videos and send the clips to the "sorceress."
"I was told that it would benefit my daughter’s health if I asked my husband to touch her body," the defendant explained.
According to the court, X had self-harmed afterward and was found by a social worker at her school in November 2019 to have cut marks on her arms. This led to the social worker reporting to the police to arrest L.M. and her husband.
"It is unbelievable that the defendant would think forcing her daughter to be sexually assaulted could 'protect them from illness,'" said the judge in court, noting that the defendant’s behaviors were beyond acceptable as she has received secondary school education and has years of working experience.
The judge added that X has always visited her mother after being arrested and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, urging the defendant to apologize to her daughters in person.
L.M. was judged to be jailed for three years; however, she would be able to be released after the court as she has been detained since being arrested in November 2019.
The defendant’s husband faces accusations of rape and sexual assault and will face his sentence on March 27.