A judicial committee in Jeddah General Court has put an end to the sorrow of a Filipino couple by issuing a jail sentence and lashes for the man who raped their 10-year-old daughter. The court sentenced the man – a Filipino identified only as Armando – to prison for five years and 500 lashes, although the Prosecution General had demanded the death penalty. The convicted man had struck up a relationship with the family of the girl towards the end of last year and used this to help him lure the girl to his apartment by offering to show her cartoons. For over a month Armando sexually abused Cielo in his home in Jeddah's Ruwais district. The little Filipina girl suffered aggravated sexual battery and even death threats from the family friend, going to great lengths to keep his behavior secret. Abusing the family's trust in him as a neighbor and compatriot, who would presumably protect them, the Filipino man put all moral considerations aside to satisfy his whims, grooming the little girl with special attention, cartoon movies, gifts, and time alone before abusing her in his short walk home. Whenever Cielo stepped into Armando's apartment, the cartoon movies were soon replaced with porno movies, exposing the little girl to adult sexuality. Her father, Lito, who has worked in the Kingdom for over 25 years, thought he left his family in safe hands with his new neighbor, when he was going to work outside Jeddah. Her mother had no time to sit with her all day as she had to work too for long hours. “I had to leave her home alone to go to work,” the heart-broken mom had told Saudi Gazette last year. “I never thought that our neighbor's apartment would turn into a den to abuse my Cielo,” she said with tears rolling down her cheeks. A neighbor noticed Armando behaving strangely as he was just coming out of his neighbor's apartment. “What's wrong with you?” the neighbor asked. “I was feeding the kid,” replied Armando. Yeah, right! With lingering distrust of Armando, the neighbor told the mother of what he saw. The mother talked to her child about it, encouraging her to speak up, constantly assuring her that telling her mom was the right thing to do and she would be safe. It was the abuser the mom blamed not the child, making Cielo feel free to talk about what had happened to her. Cielo broke down and told her mom everything. She ran, not take revenge herself, but to the police to report the abuse. “I stopped the first police car I saw and told them what happened,” she said. They told me to go to the Sharfia Police Department to file a complaint. And she did. The mother says her daughter still suffers the psychological effects almost a year after the crime.
