JEDDAH: A judiciary committee in the Jeddah General Court has sentenced a Filipino expatriate to five years in jail plus 500 lashes of the whip for raping a 10-year-old girl from his country, but the prosecutor general objected and demanded a stiffer penalty. Late last year, the man raped a 10-year-old girl several times after luring her. He carried out his crime at different places in his house and her family's home until her mother, who spent long hours at work, discovered what her neighbor in the housing complex was doing to her only child. The mother reported the matter to authorities and the man was arrested and taken into custody. The mother told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that her daughter's condition deteriorated after the assaults. “My daughter is suffering from severe psychological trauma,” she said. “She is always afraid. We find her sitting alone and looking at the ceiling and she is not aware of those around her at all. She gets nightmares and says she sees Armando, the man who assaulted her, right in front of her, so she jumps up shouting that he wants to kill her. My daughter's life has been turned into a nightmare.” The mother added that her daughter used to spend most of her time alone because she worked a lot of hours and the girl's father comes home only at the weekends. This situation enabled the woman's neighbor, Armando Elijo, to lure the girl under the pretext of showing her some cartoons. The girl's mother showed the medical report that indicated the 10-year-old was subjected to bruises and beatings, and a medical examination confirmed the charges against the defendant.
