Manager denies raping and marrying 13-year-old to avoid court action
Riduan Masmud
KOTA KINABALU: A 40-year-old man who married his alleged teenage rape victim told a Sessions Court here he did not know how traces of his semen were found in the girl’s private parts.
Restaurant manager Riduan Masmud said he also found it illogical that two pieces of handkerchiefs in the back seat of his car had traces of his semen.
“I did not do it (rape her) and I don’t know how my semen could be found in these places mentioned by the court,” he said before Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court judge Ummu Kalthom Samad here yesterday.
The accused said this in his defence against a charge of raping the 13-year-old girl in a parked car along a road near the Kionsom waterfalls in Inanam between 9am and 10am on Feb 18 this year.
The alleged offence was not known until the girl’s aunt lodged a police report against Riduan.
The restaurant owner was charged with the crime 10 days later.
However, the teenager withdrew her report on April 18.
Riduan, who has four children with another woman, had defended his marriage to the young girl, saying their marriage was consensual.
He said he had sent his first wife to work at 1Borneo Hypermall at about 9.45am on Feb 18 and that there was no way he could have been at the place of the alleged crime at around the time of the incident on the day in question.
“I deny being there at that time, and I did not rape her,” said Riduan, who is unrepresented as his counsel, Loretto P. Padua, had discharged himself from the case in September.
Riduan told the court he fell in love with the girl during the several hours of their meeting on Feb 18. They had known each other for three months through Facebook.
He claimed they did not meet again until their marriage at the Sabah Islamic Affairs Council office here in May.
He admitted taking the teenager as his second wife without an approval from the Syariah Court to carry out polygamy.
When deputy public prosecutor Raja Zaizul Faridah put it to him that by proceeding with the marriage without the court’s consent, he had violated the Syariah Court’s decision and also the bail condition set by the Sessions Court, Riduan disagreed.
“I did not know I was not allowed to communicate with the girl or her family in any way as part of my bail condition,” he said.
Asked whether he had married the victim in a hurry to have the rape charge against him withdrawn, Riduan again said: “I disagree.”
Riduan said he wanted to marry the girl because he was in love with her and that he had asked a third person, who later became one of the witnesses in their marriage at the Syariah Court on May 7, to look for the girl and her family.
“I had asked this third party to look for her, starting with the information stated in her Facebook account,” said Riduan.
He claimed he did not marry the girl in haste as there was time for him to prepare for a wedding ring and a RM5,000 wedding dowry, adding that he had planned to have a ceremony after his court case was resolved.
Riduan requested the girl’s 47-year-old father, a security guard at a college here, and 41-year-old mother to be his defence witnesses.
The couple told the court they consented to their child’s marriage to Riduan based on their relationship of suka sama suka (mutual love).
Ummu Kalthom set Jan 2 for Riduan’s submission and Jan 24 as the last day for defence.
The Star
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