Stepdad gets 23 yrs for rape

THE National Court in Madang has sentenced a man to 23 years in prison for raping his stepdaughters when they were aged six and nine.
Judge Iova Geita, who handed down the sentence last Thursday, said the 36-year-old would serve 23 years, six months and 13 days in prison.
The court heard that the incident happened between August 2020 and April 2021 when the stepfather was residing in Newtown, Madang.
The court was told that the man had on several occasions fondled the girls’ private parts before cleaning himself using the girls’ bed sheet.
He would commit the offences after the girls’ mother had gone to sleep at night, or when she was busy during the day.
The matter was reported to police on April 26, 2021 at the Jomba police station.
Police arrested the stepfather at his workplace and locked him up in the police station cell. He was charged with two counts of persistent sexual penetration.
The National reported in April last year that the mother told police that she had met the man in 2017. They got married and had a son.
She told of her shock “to hear what my daughters told me what my husband did to them”.
“I regret knowing him in the first place. I will leave him and look after my daughters myself.”