DPP to appeal 6-year sentence of 73-year-old man who raped a 7-year-old boy

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Christopher Pryde will appeal the 6-year prison sentence handed down to a 73-year-old man convicted of raping a 7-year-old boy by the Suva High Court.

The 73-year-old man was convicted and sentenced last week for raping the boy in October 2019 at a church in the Eastern Division, and a non-parole period of 5 years imprisonment was set.

The 7-year-old boy was running around inside the church with his two other siblings, and when the victim was left alone inside, the elderly man raped him.

Pryde said that in 2018, the Supreme Court in State vs Gordon Aitcheson raised the sentence tariff for child rape to between 11 and 20 years imprisonment and made no distinction between types of rape as the High Court has done in this case.

High Court Judge, Justice Vinsent Perera had said that he was unable to convince himself that given the circumstances of the offending in the case, the sentence should be within the range of 11 to 20 years imprisonment.

The DPP says rape is rape and they are of the view that a sentence based on the type of rape committed is misconceived and the resulting sentence is manifestly lenient.