Updated: 6:43am – The incident has affected my school work, my teacher told me to focus on my school work but I can’t because the incident flashes back into my mind.
These were the words of the 14‑year‑old boy who was allegedly raped by four of his uncles as he took the witness stand before High Court Judge, Justice Salesi Temo yesterday.
The alleged incidents occurred in Tailevu between November 2015 to March last year.
The boy was 13 at the time of the alleged incidents.
The four men have been charged with one count each of rape and all of them have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The first accused is 40-years-old, the second accused is 32-years-old, the third accused is 45 years while the fourth accused is 42-years-old.
Defence lawyer Nemani Tuifagalele asked the 14-year-old boy if the statement he had given was correct and whether he was coached to tell the story he was now telling.
The boy replied that his statement is correct and no one had coached him.
Tuifagalele who represents the first, second and third accused persons had asked the 14-year-old boy what the location of the first accused person’s house was from his house.
The boy had been sent by one of his family members to get something from another person’s house.
Tuifagalele had asked how many houses did he have to go past to get to the house he was supposed to go to.
The 14-year-old boy replied that there were 8 houses in between, he lived beside the 32-year-old accused and the first accused person’s house was one house away from the second accused.
The defense lawyer had established with the complainant that it was around 4pm and school children had come from school and there were generally a lot of people around.
He also asked if the accused had waved at him.
The 14-year-old boy had confirmed that he had done that. The defence lawyer then told the boy that he seemed to be very good at responding quite quickly when people called or waved at him, as in the case of the first, second and third accused persons.
Justice Temo then intervened and said the defence lawyer should ask about the first accused only as the discussion was about him at the moment.
The 14-year-old boy then told the court that the 40-year-old first accused had waved at him from the dark side of the kitchen.
He said that the kitchen had three wooden doors, two of which were closed and the wooden windows were closed as well.
Defence lawyer Tuifagalele had asked him how it was possible to see someone if two doors and the windows were closed and if the person was in darkness.
The 14-year-old boy said both the wooden doors had holes in it and that he was confused by the questions he was being asked.
He said one of the doors was open, and it was through this door that the man had waved at him and then he had entered the house.
Tuifagalele put it to him that he was changing his statement and what he had said earlier.
The 14-year-old boy said that the questions had confused him and statement was correct and he now recalled that the first accused had waved and then moved into the darker part of the kitchen.
The trial continues this afternoon.
Three of the accused persons have been given bail while the third accused who is 45 years old remains in custody.
-Fiji Village
