A man who raped the 5 year old daughter of his friend's sister, has been sentenced to 12 years and 5 months of imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 9 years and 5 months.
High Court Judge, Justice Rajasinghe found the man guilty of one count of rape for the incident on 12th September last year.
He says rape carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Justice Rajasinghe says this case involves the sexual exploitation of a young child by someone familiar within her home environment.
He says sexual exploitation of children in their domestic settings has become a significant social issue.
The judge says the troubling phenomenon of abusing children for sexual gratification requires prompt and effective attention.
The maximum penalty for rape is life imprisonment and the tariff for the rape of a child is between 11 and 20 years imprisonment.
The judge also highlighted that the Prosecution did not provide a Victim Impact Report, leaving the Court without evidence of how this crime has affected the young complainant.
He told the perpetrator that he committed this crime while the girl was playing with her younger sibling, away from the adults.
The judge selected 12 years as the starting point of the sentence and increased the sentence by two years due to the aggravating factors, resulting in a total of fourteen years.
Considering his prior character, the judge reduced the sentence by one year, and set the final sentence at 13 years of imprisonment.
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