KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — Wanita MCA accused lawyer Augustine Liom of victim-shaming today after he sought to defend his 60-year-old client’s dismissed rape case by claiming that the victim, a 15-year-old girl, had lied about having sexual intercourse.

In a statement, wing chief Datuk Heng Seai Kie said Liom’s attempt to protect his client following the uproar over the case in Sibu reflected a misogynistic and parochial view of the issue, apart from being plain mean.

“Wanita MCA is disgusted with the sickening attempt of Liom to vilify the 15-year old mother who was impregnated by his 60-year old client, as a slut and a liar,” Heng said.

“I recognise that as a lawyer, Mr Liom has to find whichever arguments in law to set his client free. Nevertheless, such arguments should be left in court.

“By humiliating and blaming the female for being deflowered and producing a child out of the wedlock, Mr Liom’s vilification reeks of misogyny and parochial mentality coupled with sheer meanness.

“Therefore, I implore Mr Liom to stop degrading the girl, and start advocating awareness of inappropriate touches by adults on minors,” she added.

Earlier today, Liom said that the young girl had “demonstrably lied” that she had been raped by his client Bunya Jalong, which prompted the Court of Appeal to acquit him last week.

He said the girl had fabricated claims that she engaged in sexual intercourse with his client, after she could not explain away her pregnancy.

“So, shocking as it may seem, we could just mistakenly underestimate the guile and craftiness of some of our present-day 15-year-olds,” he said in a statement.

Liom, a former senior sessions court judge, said much of the concern expressed arose out of the assumption or perception that the girl is naïve and innocent, and the accused a sexual predator who had taken advantage of her.

During the trial, it was alleged that the man inserted his semen-smeared finger into the girl’s vagina, which according to the law, does not constitute rape.

Outraged by the judgment and Liom’s claim of the teenager’s so-called “craftiness”, Heng asked if the defendant had used the same “craftiness” to entice the young girl.

She pointed out that the girl was merely 14 years old at the time and may not have dared to deny the man’s sexual advances.

“The defendant should have controlled his own sexual fantasies, instead of taking advantage of her,” she said.

Heng also urged for amendments to existing legislations on rape, saying any form of penetration, apart from the penis into any orifice of a minor girl or boy, should be classified as statutory rape, even if the victim in question had been a consensual participant.

Civil society groups including the Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS), lawyers and individuals have criticised the Court of Appeal’s decision, with some insisting that the man should go to jail.

SWWS and a senior lawyer ventured that the man should be charged with a lesser offence if he could not be convicted of rape.

The man had earlier been convicted of four counts of raping the girl, who gave birth to a boy on February 5, 2012.

On May 7, the Court of Appeal judges consisting of Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail, Datuk Linton Albert and Datuk Seri Zakaria Sam unanimously decided to acquit and discharge the man after saying that it was unsafe to convict him.