Rapist dad gets 15yrs jail term

By ROSELYN ELLISON
A 58-YEAR-OLD father of five was jailed 15 years with hard labour by the National Court for raping his 10-year-old adopted daughter in 2017.
Acting judge Justice Paul Tusais told the father that the maximum sentence for his crime was life imprisonment and that the offence he committed was a serious breach of relationship trust.
“This is a father-daughter relationship, whether biological or not the bond between the two is usually a very strong one,” Justice Tusais said.
“The crime was committed over a long period of time, three years between 2017 and December 2019.
“Sexual abuse was accompanied by use of physical force and mental abuse and also a big age gap between the prisoner (father) and the victim.
“You took a very young child when she was two and looked after her,” Justice Tusais said in the Kokopo National Court in East New Britain.
“You and your wife took very good care of her because she called you mother and father.
“She only found out later about her birth parents when she was 10.
“You started to have sexual intercourse with her when she was 10. You continued with your sexual assaults until she was 12.
“You treated her like your wife, you stopped having sex with your wife and instead sexually abused your adopted daughter.”
Justice Tusais said even though the father was now in jail, his (adopted) daughter would be suffering mentally from his cruel and selfish acts.
“The law regards sexual abuse of children as a very big trouble and you could go to jail for the rest of your life as courts have often sentenced offenders like you, or to 20 to 25 years in jail, especially when the victim child becomes pregnant,” he said.
“In this case, the child fortunately did not get pregnant and that is because you stopped sexual intercourse with her when she told you that she started menstruating.”
The court heard that the first act of sexual abuse happened on an unknown date in 2017, when the girl was in Grade 2.
He took her to the garden, removed her trousers and raped her.
The court heard that in a month, the father would rape her about two or three times and threatened the victim not to tell her mother (his wife) or he would kill her.