A Malaysian serial rapist who targeted foreign tourists was sentenced today to a maximum penalty of 24 strokes of the cane and 60 years in prison.

Beh Soon Hock, a 38-year-old former bus driver, was found guilty of raping a South Korean woman, and sodomising an Irish woman and a Kuwaiti boy, the official Bernama news agency reported.

"The crimes you have committed are heinous and cruel," said judge Akhtar Tahir while handing down the sentence in a Kuala Lumpur court.

Akhtar said he gave Beh the maximum jail term of 20 years and eight strokes of the cane for each of the acts not only because he had targeted foreigners, but because of his lack of remorse, Bernama reported.

Beh, who is from the southern town of Johor Baru, is to serve the three jail terms consecutively.

Twenty-four stokes is the maximum whipping penalty and is rarely imposed. Carried out with a thick length of rattan and with all the force the whipping officer can muster, the cane breaks open the skin and leaves lasting scars.

Bukit Bintang area

The sentence was handed down unusually quickly after widespread media coverage of Beh's arrest on Tuesday and the three attacks, which took place in the popular tourist area of Bukit Bintang earlier this month.

His first target was the South Korean woman, who was tricked into allowing him into her room at a budget hotel in Bukit Bintang after he posed as a hotel worker delivering a flask of hot water.

Two days later, he attacked the Irish woman, forcing his way into her room and tying her up before raping her and stealing cash and an expensive watch.

His last victim before his arrest was a young Kuwaiti boy who was on a tour of Malaysia with his schoolmates and was attacked in the bathroom of another city hotel.

The ex-convict was identified from closed-circuit television footage and tracked down to a cheap hotel where he was holed up with two women, believed to be prostitutes.