A man who had sex with a 14-year-old girl last year has been jailed for 2 years by High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar after pleading guilty to one count of defilement.
The man was 29-years-old at the time.
It was heard in court that the man and the girl were neighbours.
The girl’s parents found out about the incident through text messages in their daughter’s mobile phone.
In his sentence, Justice Goundar said the complainant may have been in a relationship with the offender but the fact of the matter is that she was a child and the offender was a matured adult.
Justice Goundar said the age gap between them and the prevalence of this offence in the community calls for a deterrent sentence despite the prospect of rehabilitation being high for the offender.
The Judge said the offender’s personal circumstances no matter how compelling do not mitigate the offence he had committed.
Justice Goundar said the offender’s ignorance of the law of defilement is not an excuse.
The Judge said the law expressly prohibits consensual sexual relationship with a child between the age of 13 and 16 years.
Justice Goundar said the objective of the law is to protect vulnerable children during puberty from sexual exploitation by adults.
Justice Goundar says the offence of defilement is prevalent in the community and the courts duty is to send a clear message that a prison sentence is inevitable for sexual exploitation of underage girls.
