There are revelations that in the last 11 months out of the 198 cases of rape and sexual assault filed in the courts, 135 victims were children.

Suva High court Judge Justice Thushara Rajasinghe revealed this while sentencing a man convicted of one count of rape.

Justice Rajasinghe says out of these 135 cases, 78 victims were below the age of 13, 34 victims were below the age of eight years while 13 child victims were below the age of five-years.

Justice Rajasinghe adds in the last nine months the youngest victim of rape and sexual abuse were between two to four- years.

The High court Judge says rape is one of the most humiliating and distressing crimes and it becomes more serious when it is involved with a child victim.

Meanwhile, a 25-year- old man has been sentenced to 17- years’ imprisonment for raping a five-year old boy in Nausori last year.

The incident took place in a village in Nausori on 16th July last year.

The victim was cleaning his compound with his siblings when the accused invited him to have ice block.

The victim’s siblings returned home after having the ice block leaving the victim alone at the accused’s house.

The man took the victim inside his house and raped him and then later took him to the bathroom, assaulted him with a tree branch and verbally abused him.

The Judge said that incident has changed the victim to a withdrawn, scared and paranoid child from a fun loving and active happy young boy.

The man has to serve 15 years and nine months sentence before being eligible for parole.