HELL was a place called home for this 10-year-old girl.

For over a year, starting when she was just eight, the girl was raped no less than 23 times at home by her father.

The 68-year-old man, who was married three times, forced himself on her even when her mother was asleep in an adjacent room of their three-room flat.

The rapes started in 2005 and ended only in February this year, when her school principal found out about the man's sordid deeds.

A chat about sex among the Primary 4 schoolgirl and her classmates had prompted her troubled friends to speak to their mothers. It led to the man's arrest in late February.

The girl is now in the care of a foster family.

On Wednesday, the man, a chauffeur, was jailed 24 years for the series of sexual abuse on the youngest of his nine children.

He was spared caning on account of his age.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Stella Tan told Justice Tay Yong Kwang the girl, who was born and raised in Indonesia, arrived here in July 2003 so that she could study here.

Earlier this year, she told four classmates she knew about sex as a man had slept with her and kissed her.

They told their mothers about it, and the principal eventually found out from her that she had been abused by her father since she was in Primary 1.

The court heard that the man first molested his daughter barely three months after he brought her here.

He told police after his arrest that he saw his daughter scratching her buttocks one evening and he suddenly felt like touching her.

The girl, who initially slept on the same bed as her parents, was woken up by her father one night. He led her to the living room, where he molested her on a sofa.

He later warned her that should she tell anyone about what he did, both she and her mother would be sent back to Indonesia.

Out of fear, she keep quiet.

From May 2005 till January this year, the man would rape her every month. In February, he raped her twice.

After the first incident, she had told her mother that 'papa touched me'. Her mother simply told her not to sleep on her parents' bed anymore.

'The victim did not know what to do,' DPP Tan said.

Urging the court to impose a sentence that reflected the severity of the offences, DPP Tan said the man had taken advantage of his position of trust and subjected his daughter to his 'cruel acts' to 'satisfy his selfish sexual lust'.

'The accused had systematically progressed from touching her body to raping her. It is abhorrent that he treated the victim as his sex partner for a period of three years,' she added.

In his mitigation, the man told the court he loved his daughter very much.

'She is closer to me than my wife. I never imagined it would come to this and I never intended this to happen,' he said.

Justice Tay told him a deterrent sentence was warranted, in view of what he had done to his daughter.

'It will be a sentence which will separate you from your young daughter for many years until she is grown up,' he said.

The man, who faced three rape charges, could be jailed up to 20 years on each charge.