17-year-old rapes woman with disability
The defendant, Sao Christopher, pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent to a 25-year-old single woman living with physical disability. He has been sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison.
Taking the seriousness of the offence, together with the aggravating features and the mitigating circumstances of the case, the starting sentence for the defendant was 7 years imprisonment.
Mitigating circumstance are as follows: the defendant is 17 years old, he left school at Year 4, loves his family, plants kava and taro for income, has medical condition of Hepatitis B but no medical report was provided.
His early guilty plea and early admission to the police on investigation, custom reconciliation ceremony and other personal factors reduced his sentence of 7 years to be 3 years and 8 months’ imprisonment, a reduction of 3 years and 4 months.
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4 years and 2 months jail term for rapist
Defendant, Kasiken Tari was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months’ imprisonment for having pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual intercourse without consent to a 21-year-old.
The offence of sexual intercourse without consent under section 91 of the Penal Code Act carries the maximum penalty of life imprisonment; however, 7 years was adopted as the starting point.
The mitigating circumstance are as follows: an early guilty plea, previous good character, willingness to perform a reconciliation ceremony and he is 20-years-old. The court reduced the balance of his sentence to 4 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.
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Babysitter molests 2-year-old
The defendant, Kamilo Vira, pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted sexual intercourse with a 2-year-old child, living under his care and protection. He has been sentenced to 9 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
The maximum penalty for this offence is 10 years imprisonment, however, 7 years was adopted as the starting point.
The mitigating factor included pleading guilty. The Court considered the defendant’s personal character and history as contained in his pre-sentence report and deducted a further 6 months for those other factors.
There is no remorse for his offending and he has not performed any custom reconciliation ceremony.
As the defendant is currently serving a sentence of 9 years and 6 months’ imprisonment, the Court ordered that the defendant’s end sentence be served consecutively to the 9 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.
This leaves his end sentence at 5 years and 2 months’ imprisonment.
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Husband threatens to kill spouse
Joseph Taruan pleaded guilty on to 3 charges of threats to kill and domestic violence. He has been sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment.
Threats to kill carries the maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment. And domestic violence carries the maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment and or VT100, 000.
Taking the seriousness of all the offences committed by the defendant in this case 5 years was adopted as the starting point.
The mitigating factors are as follows: a one third reduction for his guilty plea and cooperating with the police, leaving 3 years as the end sentence.
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Wife attacks husband’s mistress
The defendant, Samantha Seth, entered guilty pleas to 4 counts of intentional assault causing injuries of a temporary natures to her husband’s mistress.
The collective maximum sentence is 14 years’ imprisonment, therefore the total concurrent sentence for all 4 offences is 16 months’ imprisonment.
There was no reduction for the defendant’s guilty plea as to do so in the circumstances of the case, would be an encouragement for others in her situation to abuse, instead, the non-reduction will serve as a deterrence.
The mitigating factors are as follows: clean record, reconciliation ceremony performed, however, no further reduction should be made for these instead, the Court ordered that the defendant’s concurrent sentence of 16 months’ imprisonment be suspended for a period of 2 years from the date of sentence.
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