A 31-year-old driver from Nadi has been jailed for 10 years and five months after pleading guilty to raping a five-year-old boy at a secluded village dredge site.
Court records show that on October 26, 2024, the victim went outside to use the restroom under a mango tree. That was when the man forcefully pulled the child’s T-shirt and carried him 100 meters away to a secluded dredge site.
Behind a fence, he forcefully held the victim down and raped him, causing the victim to scream in pain. The victim escaped, ran home, and reported the assault to his brother and schoolteacher.
During sentencing, Justice Sunil Sharma said the child suffered deep emotional and psychological trauma including fear of being alone, becomes distressed at the mention of the man’s name and failed his school examinations following the assault.
The man will be eligible for parole after serving eight years and five months of his head sentence.
