A 44-year-old woman finally got her day in court this week, 31 years after she was first raped by her stepfather and, over time, bore him two children.
It took the woman over three decades to see her abuser who “subjected her through a campaign of rape” which started when she was 13 in their family home in 1990 Waibau, Naitasiri, sentenced to almost 15 years by a high court in Suva this week.
Court documents showed the man, now aged 63 years, who did not have any children with the victim’s mother, impregnated the victim, identified as TT, twice with her first child born in 1994 when she was 17.
Sentencing the man, High Court Judge Justice Riyaz Hamza told him that as her stepfather he should have protected her, but instead took advantage of her vulnerability, and helplessness, and robbed the victim of her innocence.
The man had been remanded in custody for a little over a year, 11 months between 27 November 2019 and 20 October 2020 and a little over one month from 29 January 2021 until his sentencing on Monday this week, 8 March 2021.
The man was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment and will need to serve eight years behind bars before he can be considered for parole.
