Youth jailed for raping Indonesian

Youth jailed for raping Indonesian

SINGAPORE (AFP): A Singapore court has sentenced a Malaysian youth to eight years' jail and six strokes of the cane for raping an Indonesian maid amid mounting concern over offenses against domestics, press reports said yesterday.

Lam Chun Song, 18, was found guilty Tuesday of raping the 23- year-old woman in her employer's flat on September 29, the Straits Times said. Rape carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' jail.

"We can't altogether ignore what has appeared in the media in recent days of the offense of rape of maids and molest cases of maids working in Singapore," Judge T.S. Sinnathuray said.

Lam denied raping the maid and contended that she had made up the story as a pretext to go home to Indonesia.