A man in his 50s’ who sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl at her home in Ba, where he was a house guest two years ago, has been jailed.
Lautoka High Court Judge Justice Sunil Sharma sentenced the man to more than three years with a non-parole period of two years.
Court documents showed that the man committed the offence when the girl, referred to as S.T, and the rest of her family slept on Saturday 26 October 2019.
The girl had arrived from Suva the day before to spend the weekend at her family home and had not met the man until then. The girl and her family slept around 11 pm that day, but the incident happened around 4am on Saturday.
In mitigation, the man submitted that he cooperated with police, unmarried, a labourer and promised not to re-offend.
Justice Sharma told the man that he was selfish and undeserving of the kindness and trust the family showed him.
The accused had been in remand for a year and three months.
