Updated: 6:00am – 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 21 people charged with a total of 31 separate incidents in November. The offences were rape (15), abduction with intent to have carnal knowledge (3), indecent assault (6), defilement (1) and sexual assault (6). Of the 21 people charged, three were police officers.
Two police officers were charged with two counts of abduction with intent to have carnal knowledge of a 17-year old girl while another police officer was charged with two counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault of a female police officer. There were 20 victims of the 31 separate incidents of whom 15 victims were under the age of 18 years.
There was one incident where a school head teacher was charged with sexual offences.
He was charged with rape, sexual assault, indecent assault and indecently annoying his school pupils.
(NB: The offence of indecently annoying persons is not included in the statistics table). In another incident, three high school pupils were charged with rape. However, this matter was withdrawn after a discontinuance (Nolle Prosequi) was filed.
A 28-year old man was charged with a count of abduction with the intent to have carnal knowledge of a 17-year old girl. The victim fell pregnant as a result. There were 4 incidents where the accused and victims were domestically related to one another. There was incident where a 61-year old grandfather was charged for raping his 8-year old granddaughter. There was one incident of gang rape where the four accused persons were cousins and brothersin-law of the victim.
A stepfather was also charged in another matter for sexually assaulting his 12-year old daughter and in another incident a man was charged for raping and sexually assaulting his 9-year old cousin.
Three cases were withdrawn after discontinuances (Nolle Prosequi) were filed. These matters were withdrawn due to insufficient or inconsistent evidence. Refer to the table entitled ODPP Rape and Sexual Offences November 2017 for a break-down of these statistics.
ODPP Rape and Sexual Offences Statistics – November 2017
-Fiji Sun
