Rapist grandfather jailed for 20 years

A 54-year-old grandfather was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of repeatedly raping his 11-year-old granddaughter.

The Larnaca-Famagusta Criminal Court Friday passed sentence on the man after finding him guilty of 26 accounts of sexually abusing a minor, including rape, indecent assault, and domestic violence against his then eleven-year-old granddaughter.

The crimes took place between December 2020 and July 2021.

Announcing its decision, the court said that the girl’s grandfather “instead of being a guardian and taking care of the complainant bringing her joy, and happiness, he behaved in an immoral manner, devasting her soul and body, bringing her misery and humiliation”.

It said the 54-year-old had “desecrated her being in the worst possible way”, taking advantage of the child’s innocence and the generous trust and love she had shown him to carry out “shameful, abominable, reprehensible, and illegal actions”.

Commenting on the 20-year sentence handed down, the court judgement said: “Deterrent penalties are imposed for such offences, with penalties becoming increasingly severe”.

“Nevertheless, it has not been possible to stop such offences against children.

“Therefore, the longer this type of offence continues to increase, the more severe and deterrent penalties should be imposed to enable success in preventing the offender from repeating the offence or other similar offences. ”

The conviction was based on the girl’s testimony relayed to the court through a videotaped statement she had given a female police officer.

The court also heard the child’s testimony from a child psychologist who was assigned to evaluate her wellbeing.

According to the decision, “the psychological evaluation of the child was accepted, according to which her mental health was affected as she is suffering from post-traumatic stress, due to the sexual abuse suffered by her paternal grandfather”.