246 charged with serious sexual offences in 2020

246 people have been charged with a total of 531 counts of serious sexual offences from January 1st to December 31st 2020.

The youngest accused person was an 11 year old boy who allegedly raped an 8 year old girl from his village.

The youngest victim was a 2 year old girl who was allegedly raped by her 62 year old father and in another incident a 2 year old girl was allegedly raped by her 28 year old cousin.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions says of the 246 accused persons last year, 21 were juveniles and two were police officers.

There were 373 cases of rape, 20 cases of attempted rape, 3 cases of aiding and abetting rape, 2 cases of assault with intent to rape, 9 cases of abduction with intent to commit rape, 17 cases of indecent assault, 8 cases of defilement and 99 cases of sexual assault.

There were 240 victims of whom 165 victims were under the age of 18 years.

All accused persons charged with sexual offences were male however victims of the sexual offences were both male and female comprising of 229 female victims and 11 male victims.

There were 110 offences that occurred in domestic relationships or where the accused was known to the victims.

The DPP’s Office says 38 sexual offence cases were withdrawn in 2020. Meanwhile 271 people were charged with a total of 578 counts of serious sexual offences in 2019.