A father of six is on trial in the Supreme Court for raping his teenage daughter in April 2019 while his wife and other children were asleep. 

The names of the defendant and the victim have been suppressed by Supreme Court Justice Tafaoimalo Leilani Tuala Warren, who is presiding over the assessor trial.

The father is facing one charge of rape of a young person and one count of sexual connection with a young person. The charges were amended in Court on Wednesday and reduced from the original charges that alleged that the offense was committed against a person “under the age of 12.” 

The 13-year-old victim testified in Court that she was sleeping with her three sisters and little brother on one bed when her father called her to come and scratch his back.   She complied and then fell asleep next to her father, the Court heard.

That's when he raped her. Her mother discovered them when she turned on the lights and pulled the sheet off of her husband to discover her husband and daughter both naked.

During an hour-long testimony in Court, the girl alleged her father was violent and had been molesting her since the age of 10. 

“I did not like it. I am not happy. It’s a bad thing what my father did to me,” she told the Court.

The victim’s mother accompanied her to the hospital to see the doctor and told the Court that her incestuous ordeal as “painful.”

During cross examination, the defense attorney, Unasa Iuni Sapolu asked the girl if she was trying to pin the blame on her father, for an offense another man called “Pati” or “Mika” did.

But the victim told the Court that it was her father who raped her as he instructed her not to tell anyone and that the “pain would subside.”

After her mother found them under the sheets, the victim said she told her mother what her father did.

Unasa then asked her why she didn’t scream or call out to her mother for help.

But the girl stood her ground, saying: “He does not love us, his children.” 

When Unasa asked the girl if she knows what “sex” is, the girl said no.

The trial continues.