A man’s acquittal of raping a 15-year-old girl despite the teen giving birth to his son underscores the need for amendments to the definition of rape, Penang executive councillor Chong Eng said.

The 60-year-old’s conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Friday because he said he used a finger tainted with his semen to penetrate her, instead of his penis, Chinese-language media reported.

This does not fall in the definition of rape, according to the law which defines rape as penetration by penis into vagina under involuntary circumstances.

"The victim in the Sibu case was even made pregnant and gave birth to a boy but the accused escaped punishment under loopholes in the law. This is an unacceptable decision.

“Even if existing law is unable to sentence him on rape charges, prosecutors should have charged him with molest and ordered him to be responsible for the child to meet social justice,” Chong ( left ) said in a statement.

She said women’s groups have many times called for the definition of rape to be expanded because penetration by any object causes similar harm.

In 2004, the Anti-Rape Task Force consisting of women’s and child rights NGOs submitted a memorandum calling for the insertion of objects into vagina in involuntary circumstances to be defined as rape under the Penal Code.

It noted that there have been cases where poles, bottles and clothes hangers have been inserted into children’s vaginas but the perpetrator could only be charged with lighter offences despite the brutality of the act.

“Lighter sentencing for the use of an object in rape trivialises the violence that takes place. 

“For example, when a man uses his finger to rape a child, he is charged with outraging decency, under Section 377D of the Penal Code, which carries only a maximum two years’ imprisonment.

“This is a considerably lower sentence than rape, although the violation is of equal gravity,” the memorandum states.

According to news reports, the retired civil servant was entrusted to send and fetch the girl to and from school, but had sexual relations with her to the extent of making her pregnant.

The sessions court in Sibu, Sarawak, sentenced him to 42 years in jail, 11 strokes of rotan and a fine of RM40,000 but the verdict was unanimously overturned by a bench of three Court of Appeal judges on Friday, Chong said, citing local media reports.