Another brother out of four biological older brothers accused of sexually abusing their sister has pleaded guilty on Mar. 12, 2024, to raping her when he was aged 13 to 16.
The sister, now 14, was eight when the alleged assaults started. It allegedly lasted until she was 12 years old.
As the names of the accused and the victim cannot be released, the four brothers are referred to as:
- A: the oldest brother, now aged 23.
- B: the second eldest brother, now aged 22.
- C: the third brother, now aged 20.
- D: the youngest brother, now aged 18.
All four committed the alleged offences against their sister when they were between the ages of 13 and 21.
C previously pleaded guilty in court to a charge of aggravated sexual assault on Feb. 5, 2024.
Another seven charges were taken into consideration.
D has now pleaded guilty in the High Court on Mar. 12 to two counts of aggravated rape of his sister when he was aged 13 to 16, often while she was asleep, CNA reported on the same day.
Another six charges for aggravated rape and sexual assault will also be taken into consideration.
Defence sought reformative training
D's defence sought the reformative training suitability report.
During mitigation, the lawyer said D was "remorseful and unlikely to re-offend", and has "learned an extremely bitter and painful lesson".
She also told the judge that if reformative training is found unsuitable, she will seek the minimum sentence for rape.
The prosecutors on the other hand are seeking a sentence of nine to 10 years in jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane.
While they acknowledged that "rehabilitation is generally the primary sentencing consideration for young offenders", they argued that "deterrence or retribution can take centre stage depending on the circumstances of a case".
Aggravated rape carries a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane.
Case background
The victim has four brothers and two sisters, and is the oldest among her sisters.
The family of nine lived together in a house with three bedrooms.
Besides the master bedroom, the court documents referred to the two other rooms as the boys' room and girls' room, which was shared separately between the sons and daughters respectively.
The parents had set ground rules that the boys were not to enter the girl's room, unless it was to comb their hair as the boys' room had no mirror.
The court heard that the mother had this rule because the three girls were still young, and the four boys were more mature.
The mother would also remind her sons to not stay inside the girls' room whenever she saw one of them inside.
Often targeted sister while she was asleep
Despite their mother's warnings, D would go into his sisters' room to sexually assault the victim, even when his other sisters were sleeping there.
He admitted to doing this on at least seven occasions, including in their parents' room and the boys' room.
The prosecutor told the court that D “chose” to sexually assault the victim instead of his other sisters as "she trusted him the most" and "would not report him to anyone".
He also often targeted her while she was asleep.
If she woke up and resisted by saying “don’t want” or by pushing him away, he would tell her to keep quiet and not tell anyone.
On one particular occasion, he called her into the boys’ room when they were at home alone and raped her there.
According to CNA, court documents did not state if he knew their other brothers were abusing her.
School alerted MSF
On Feb. 10, 2022, the victim finally gathered the courage to share with the authorities in her secondary school about the sexual abuse she experienced.
The school alerted the Ministry of Social and Family Development and a police report was lodged.
D was arrested on the same day.
Victim blamed herself, mother did not believe her
The court heard that the victim felt bad for reporting her brothers to the authorities, and also felt anxious and blamed herself for not stopping them.
A psychiatrist's assessment later showed that the girl had been having recurrent thoughts about the abuse.
Another senior clinical psychologist’s report showed the mother said that she did not believe the abuse allegations, and expressed feelings of anger and disappointment towards the victim.
The prosecutor told the court that the mother blamed the girl for the aftermath of her allegations, which included the "adverse impact" on the brothers’ futures as well as the removal of one of the sisters from the family.
The girl has also reported trauma symptoms.
She was referred to trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, following which she displayed "significant improvement" and appeared to have “adequate wellbeing and functioning”.
Other 2 brothers' cases are pending
D's and C's sentencing will be held at a later date.
The cases of the other two brothers are pending.
Top photo from Canva