The following data is authorised for release by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and relates to the number of formal indictments (Information) filed in the High Courts of Fiji by the Director of Public Prosecutions throughout the month.

This data is confined to incidents of serious sexual offences only.

There were 23 people charged with a total of 36 counts of separate incidents in October.

The offences were rape (20), aiding and abetting (1), defilement (5) and sexual assault (10).
There were 17 victims of whom 14 victims were under the age of 18 years. There was 1 male victim and 16 female victims.

Of the 23 people charged, 9 were juveniles. A 15-year-old boy was charged with the rape of a 10-year-old boy. A 16-year-old boy was charged with the rape of his 6-year-old niece.

A 17-year-old boy was charged alongside an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old with the rape of an 18-year-old girl. There was another incident where a 17-year-old boy was charged alongside a 20-year-old man with the rape of their 17-year-old cousin who fell pregnant after the incident.

The 20-year-old man was also charged with aiding and abetting rape.

Another 17-year-old boy was charged with the rape of a 14-year-old girl.

Four 16-year-old boys were charged with the defilement of a 15-year-old girl.

All the juveniles were from the same school.

There were seven matters where the accused persons and the victims were related to one another.

A 64-year-old man was charged with the rape of his 6-year-old step granddaughter while a 49-year-old man was charged with the sexual assault of his 9-year-old granddaughter

A 27-year-old man was charged with the sexual assault of his 2-year-old stepdaughter.

In another incident, a 47-year-old man was charged with the rape and sexual assault of his

14-year-old step niece. The accused allegedly threatened to kill the victim with a knife.

A 25-year-old man was charged with the rape and sexual assault of his 15-year-old niece.

There were two separate incidents where a 62-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were charged with the rape of a 12-year-old and a 4-year-old girl.

The accused persons and victims were neighbours at the time of the incidents.

A 69-year-old man was charged with the rape of a 7-year-old girl who was residing with the accused’s family at the time of the incident.

A 44-year-old man was charged with the rape and sexual assault of a 44-year-old intellectually disabled woman who fell pregnant after the incident.

The accused and the victim were neighbours.
One case of rape and sexual assault was withdrawn after a discontinuance (Nolle Prosequi) was filed due to insufficient evidence.

Refer to the table entitled ODPP Rape and Sexual Offences October 2019 for a break-down of these statistics.