New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) A court here has sentenced a man to five years' rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a girl in 2019, saying the country's aspiration rested on children but it was "a matter of great misfortune" that children were in an extremely vulnerable position.

Additional Sessions Judge Susheel Bala Dagar was hearing the arguments on sentencing against the man, who was earlier convicted of sexually assaulting the minor girl.

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Additional Public Prosecutor Yogita Kaushik said the convict deserved no sympathy for the abominable and reprehensible act.

"It is the responsibility of society as a whole to take care of its children and to protect them from their physiological and psychological exploitation at the hands of the sexual abusers. The children of the present day are future of the society," the court said in its verdict dated November 6.

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"The aspiration of the future of India lies in the children but it is a matter of great misfortune that children, including minor girls and boys, are in an extremely vulnerable position. Persons like the convict use various modes for exploiting the children, including sexual assault and sexual abuse, and such exploitation by way of sexual abuse of children is a crime against humanity and society," the court added.

The court noted that the convict, who was the victim's neighbour, committed the "loathsome act" after finding the child alone.

"The penalty awarded to the convict should commensurate with the gravity of the loathsome act so as it serves as an effective deterrence to like-minded persons," it said.

The court then sentenced the 59-year-old man to five years rigorous imprisonment each under Section 354 A (sexual harassment) and 354 (assault or criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty).

It also sentenced him to one-year imprisonment for the offence of house trespass and six months imprisonment for wrongfully confining the girl.

All sentences will run concurrently, the court said.

The court's 10-page verdict also quoted Renee Fredrickson, a psychologist and author on repressed memories, who had studied the long-term impact of child sexual abuse and said, "During sexual abuse, children feel and incorporate the rage, pain, shame, and sense of perversion that the perpetrator is projecting. They take these feelings into the very core of themselves and they are badly traumatised by the emotions surrounding the assault, as well as by the assault itself."

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