BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
THE 72-year-old Australian missionary alleged of sexually assaulting five young girls under the age of 15 is listed for plea today at the Honiara Magistrate Court.
He is faced with counts of indecent acts on children in the years between of 2010 to 2012.
He came to the Solomon Islands in 1998 as a missionary and worked at the SWIM mission Centre in East Honiara from 1998 to 2012.
It was during that time he came into contact with a number of young children who were associated with the activities at the SWIM mission centre. Following the man’s departure from Solomon Islands in 2012 police started to receive complaints of sexual assaults or indecent assaults committed against girls during their time at SWIM.
The alleged incidents occurred between 2010 and 2012 when the man worked as a Christian Missionary in East of Honiara. He was in charge of the mission at that time.
After the man arrived back in Honiara on June 23, detectives from the RSIPF National Criminal Investigations Department (NCID) Sexual Assault Team arrested the accused on June 24, 2019, charged him and took him to court and was remanded.
