A 47-year-old father of five has been committed by the Waigani Committal Court to stand trial in the National Court over allegations he continuously sexually assaulted his own daughter.
Magistrate John Kaumi of the Waigani Committal Court sent the case of the man to the National Court on Tuesday after the lower court found there was sufficient evidence against him.
The Port Moresby-based soldier, whose identity is being withheld due to the age of the victim, is expected to appear in the National Court on March 20 for listing.
He was arrested in July 2015 and charged with the persistent child sexual abuse under section 229 of the Criminal Code and Sexual Offenses and Crimes Against Children’s Act.
The victim is the defendant’s third biological daughter and the only female in a family of five children.
Summary of facts before the Committal Court alleged that he started sexually assaulting the victim when she was 14 years old.
He allegedly sexually assaulted her at their family home and behind a school where they lived between January 31, 2014, and June 18, 2015.
He would allegedly take the victim into his bedroom or for a walk in the bushes and violate her in the pretext of trying to discipline her.
The acts of sexual abuse mostly took place at night when the victim’s brothers and grandmother were asleep.
This allegedly continued until June 20, 2015, when the victim’s mother decided to check on her children when she learnt of the sexual abuse of her daughter through the victim herself.
A formal complaint was later laid by the mother on June 22, 2015, at the Boroko Police Station which led to his arrest.
The accused’s wife left him in 2012 due to continuous domestic violence.