Daniel Charles Andria, 20, committed the crime on at Juba’s Gurei residential area May 20, 2019. He was convicted in Juba on 18 Jan 2021 | Credit | Michael Daniel/Eye Radio

The Gender-Based Violence Court in Juba has sentenced a young man to 10 years in prison for defiling a 15-year-old girl.

Daniel Charles Andria, 20, committed the crime at Juba’s Gurei residential area on May 20, 2019, the GBV court heard.

Presiding Judge Francis Amum Awin said after committing the crime, the perpetrator threatened the survivor not to report it to her family.

Out of shame and stigma, the unnamed girl reportedly kept quiet until pregnancy showed.

She was then questioned before she accused Charles Andria of sexually assaulting her.

“One, the convicted person is sentenced to 10 years in prison effective from today the 18 of January 2021, and the convicted has to pay to the victim amount of SSP 600,000 as amends through the criminal procedure,” Judge Amum read out the verdict during the sentencing on Monday.

According to the presiding judge, the convict has been charged under Article 247 of the South Sudan Panel Code of 2008.

Article 247 of the Penal Code says whosoever has sexual intercourse or carnal intercourse with another person, against his or her will or without his or her consent, commits the offense of rape.

It states that upon conviction, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years and may also be liable to a fine.

The special court was established recently to handle crimes related to gender-based violence in the country.

In 2020, the UN Human Rights Commission said it was alarmed at the large degree to which rape and sexual violence had been perpetrated in South Sudan during the five-year civil war.

It said over 100 women and girls were raped after the signing of the revitalized peace agreement last year.

The UNMISS human rights division said it had documented 95 separate incidents of violations and abuses in the period from September 2018 until April 2019.