Hardly a month goes by without news reports of shocking cases of rape and sexual abuse.

The tragic rise of people sexually abusing family members has been attracting headlines.

Many have been cases of incestuous fathers, grandfathers, uncles who have abused the trust and confident of their daughters, granddaughters and nieces.

On Monday, a 37 year old man was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment at the Lautoka High Court for indecently assaulting and raping his two biological daughters.

The Court heard that the accused had been raping his elder daughter for a period of eight years starting in 2006 when she was just six years old and the younger daughter for over a period of one year since last year.

Justice Thushara Rajasinghe who delivered his sentence said accordingly it appears that a father using his own daughters as surrogated sexual partners was not only against the acceptable social norms and values but also the acceptable human behaviours.

“Social enigma of abusing children for sexual gratification by their own parent need to address promptly and effectively not only through the judicial process but also with effective social intervention to minimise the adverse psychological and physical effect of the victim,” Justice Rajasinghe said.

Last month a 75 year old man of Lami was sentenced by the Suva High Court to 11 years in prison for raping his paternal granddaughter from 2008 to 2011.

He started raping the victim when she was only in class one.

Justice Salesi Temo who delivered his sentence said the accussed seriously breached the trust the victim had in him.

“As a child you turned her life into a living hell. You must not complain when your liberty is lost to pay for your crimes,” Justice Temo said.

“A position of trust existed between the complainant child and her grandfather. A grandfather is supposed to look after and care after the child.”

Also last month a 27 year old man in the Central Division was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Suva High Court for raping an 11 year old girl who was his neighbor in 2013.

Justice Temo upon delivering the accused’s sentence said as always the court takes a dim view of people who rape children.

“By offending against the complainant you showed utter disregard to her human rights and dignity,” Justice Temo said.

Meanwhile, In a report released yesterday by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) 28 people were charged with a total of 48 separate incidents of serious sexual offences in last month alone.

These were the number of formal indictments (Information) filed in the High Courts of Fiji by the Director of Public Prosecutions throughout last month.

The 28 people included two people under the age of 18 years.

The 48 separate incidents consisted of 35 rape cases, six defilement, four indecent assault two attempted rape and abduction of a person under 18 years of age with intent to have carnal knowledge (sexual intercourse).

There were 27 victims of whom 16 were under the age of 18 years.

Of these 16, six were between the ages of six and 12, while ten were between the ages of 13 and 17.

Two rape cases were discontinued before the courts after one was withdrawn and a discontinuance (Nolle Prosequi) was filed for the other.

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