[File Photo]

A 79-year-old man convicted of raping his 11-year-old great-granddaughter in Rakiraki has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by the Lautoka High Court.

The court heard that the man committed the offence in 2021.

The Lautoka High Court judge stated that the man breached the trust as he was well known to the complainant and her family.

The judge said that there was a large disparity in age between him and the complainant, and at the time of the offence, the man was 76 years of age while the complainant was less than nine years old.

Justice Riyaz Hamza said that he took advantage of the complainant’s vulnerability, helplessness, and naivety.

The man has been remanded for about seven and a half months, and he will now have to serve 13 years and four months of imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years and four months.