12 charged with 30 sex crimes in April

Source: ODPP

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 12 people charged with a total of 30 counts of separate incidents in April. The offences were rape (19), attempted rape (1) and sexual assault (10).

There were 14 victims of whom 7 victims were under the age of 18 years. Of the 14 victims, 1was male and 13 were female victims.

Of the 12 people charged, two were juveniles. A 14-year-old boy was charged with the rape of a 5-year old boy from his village while a 16-year-old boy was charged with three counts of rape and one count of attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl from his school.

There were five incidents where the victims and the accused were related to one another. A 44-year-old man was charged with four counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault of his 14-year-old daughter while in another incident a 44-year-old man was charged with representative counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault of his 12-year-old stepdaughter.

There was one incident of marital rape where a 43-year-old man was charged with the rape of his 28-year-old wife while heavily intoxicated.

A 52-year-old man was charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl and two 18-year-old women on different occasions.

A 43-year-old man was charged with the sexual assault of his 30-year-old former partner. He was also charged with assault causing actual bodily harm, abduction with intent to confine, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, theft, damaging property and criminal intimidation. (NB: The non-sexual offences are recorded separately).

There was one incident where a 32-year-old man was charged with the rape of a 20-year-old woman after a drinking party, while in another incident, a 20-year-old man was charged with three counts of the rape of a 15-year-old from his village.A 23-year-old man was charged with the rape of his 16-year-old girlfriend, however, this matter was discontinued after the victim admitted to making a false complaint.

In another incident a 23-year-old man was charged with the rape of a 32-year-old woman, however, this matter was discontinued due to insufficient evidence.

A 33-year-old man was charged with the rape of a 22-year-old woman, however, this matter was discontinued after the victim admitted to making a false complaint.

Refer to the table entitled ODPP Rape and Sexual Offences April 2021 for a break-down of these statistics.