A person found guilty of repeatedly raping two underage cousins, one of whom was his godchild, will remain imprisoned for 20 years after the Court dismissed his appeal.
The defence challenged both the conviction and the sentence arguing that the allegations made by the victims were unjustifiably delayed and were motivated by financial reasons.
The Court dismissed the appeal in its entirety, describing the case as “one of the worst of its kind.”
The offences against one of the minors took place between 2006 and 2009 when the child was aged 6-9, while the crimes against the other child occurred between 1995 and 1997, when they were 9-11 years old.
At the time of committing the offences against one child, the appellant was 26-29 years old, and during the perpetration of the crimes against the other minor, they were 13.5-15.5 years old.
It’s noted that the complaints were made in January 2019, when one victim learned from the other what they had endured at the hands of the appellant.
The sexual abuse had stopped in 2009 when the appellant’s foreign wife began to stay more frequently at their home.
As a result of the sexual abuse, one of the victims has been suffering from chronic depression since the age of 12 and attempted suicide three times at the age of 14, the Court heard.
