Sexual cases on the rise

 SEXUAL penetration and touching make up 84 per cent of sex offences reported in East New Britain with most committed by locals.

Acting judge Justice Stephen Oli said during the opening of the legal year at Raluana United Church in Kokopo last Friday that the increase in sex offences was a concern for the judiciary.

Statistics in ENB from 2008 to August 2013 showed that sexual penetration and sexual touching charges totalled 106 (84%), rape 13 (8.7%) and incest seven (1.3%).

The 126 sex offences had gone through the National Court registry system.

“Of the 126, 83 cases were committed by indigenous locals of ENB (64%) and the rest by outsiders,” Oli said.

“I am not going hard on the ENB people but we are concerned. We want to work as a team to find out why it is occurring more often and why it is happening in de-facto homes. When a foster father marries a woman with two to three daughters, this is where the problem comes about.

“This in my view raises a concern that females are being seen and used as sex objects for pleasure by males.”

He said sex offences were prevalent in the province. 

“When the law enforcing agencies receive complaints, they act on them and they are reflected in the Docket Case Management System statistics that we are guided by,” he said.

“But reporting the cases is not having a deterrent on perpetrators because the figures continue to rise at an alarming rate,” he said.