Women minister welcomes milestone sentence for rapist

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Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa. Picture: FILE

BIOLOGICAL fathers raping their daughters are always going to be one of the sickest things for us to have existed within society.

This was the view of Fiji’s Minister for Women and Children, Mereseini Vuniwaqa while reacting to the sentencing of a 74-year-old father to life imprisonment for raping two of his biological daughters.

The milestone sentence was passed by Judge Justice Daniel Goundar at the High Court in Suva last week, a first for a rape case in the country.

The court heard that he impregnated the first victim at the age of 14 years and later raped the child born out of the rape when the second victim turned 10 years.

Justice Goundar said the demon for those victims was real in the form of their own biological father.

The man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for each count of rape and five years’ imprisonment for the offence of indecent assault.

“If a girl is not safe with her own father, then who else can she even imagine to be safe with?” she said.

Mrs Vuniwaqa said life imprisonment sentence was highly welcomed in cases of this nature.

She added that as a ministry concerned for the welfare of women and children, they were very pleased that the judiciary continued to play the vital role that it does in deterring crimes against women and children.

Mrs Vuniwaqa stressed that sex crimes against women were highly prevalent amongst the criminal offences in the country and it is an issue that demands urgent and most effective action.

Mrs Vuniwaqa highlighted that from the statistics released by the ODPP, it was indicative that approximately 46 per cent of the cases before the courts this year were of sex crimes that took place where the victims and the perpetrators were either related or known to each other.

She maintains that the elimination of violence and other crimes against women and children requires concerted efforts and each institution, including the police, civil society organisations, churches, communities, families, individuals and the judiciary have an important role to play.

Mrs Vuniwaqa said she hoped that all other actors in the fight to eliminate violence and sex crimes against women will strengthen their actions and strategies as well.

She said people in society needed to know that such crimes were very serious and such sentences from the courts validated that to a great extent.

She added that the justice framework for sex offences had been set and it was a relief to see that the harshest possible penalties were being served to offenders.

Mrs Vuniwaqa highlighted that victims of sexual crimes are traumatised for life.

“Such sentences are a reaffirmation to victims that when we talk about access to justice, we mean that justice will be served,” she said.

“Our laws are meant to protect them and punish/rehabilitate offenders, but at the same time, reporting crimes and seeing that justice is served can reduce chances of reoccurrences of the same crime to them and also to other victims by the perpetrators.”

She adds that women or anyone for that matter who are victims of such heinous crimes were encouraged to report it.

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