PETALING JAYA, Oct 20 — Police arrested a self-proclaimed pastor in connection with the alleged sexual assault of one of his wards over the past eight years in Puchong.

The 49-year-old suspect was produced before a magistrate here yesterday when police obtained a four-day remand order for his detention to facilitate investigations.

District police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zani Che Din said police had yet to determine if the 17-year-old victim was sexually abused as the medical report was not ready.

Zani said statements would be taken from the suspect’s family.

The case has been classified as touching any body part of a child for sexual purposes is punishable by a prison term of up to 20 years and whipping.

The victim’s mother, a Chinese national, brought to light the girl’s ordeal on Wednesday.

She said she sent her daughter when aged nine to the suspect’s home schooling centre in 2009 after she could not enrol her in a regular school.

The mother claimed the suspect convinced her to let him become her daughter’s guardian.

She also claimed she was told by the suspect it was safer for her daughter to stay in his house rather than at the centre as authorities could create trouble because she was a foreigner.

She said her daughter managed to escape the suspect’s flat and called her before they lodged a police report on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old mother said she did not suspect anything amiss until contact with her daughter became restricted and the girl’s mobile phone was confiscated by the suspect.

She said he refused to allow them to meet without him present.

“He would not allow us to meet alone and would always be present. The suspect’s wife pleaded with me not to lodge a police report after I found out about the abuse,” she said.

The mother said she paid the suspect a RM500 monthly allowance and was only allowed to see her daughter once a year during annual gatherings.

“I suspected something was not right when my daughter was recently caught consuming alcohol at school,” she said.

“I found out the abuse started four months after my daughter moved into the home of the suspect and his family.

“My daughter related he would take her into a room to abuse her when his wife was not at home.”

The mother also claimed her daughter had tried to seek help from the suspect’s wife and two sons, aged 17 and 21, but they thought she was lying.

“I am devastated my daughter went through a terrible ordeal,” she said.

“But as her mother, I have to be stronger than her. I have given her my word that I will protect her and not let anyone hurt her anymore.”