A Pentecost man has been sentenced to 7 year and 8 months imprisonment for raping his 4-year-old daughter and 6-year-old niece.

Ken Tabera of Aronbaratu Village, North Pentecost was charged with 3 counts of sexual intercourse without consent contrary to sections 90 and 91 of the Penal Code Act Cap.135 and 2 Counts of incest contrary to section 95 (1) (a) of the Act- Counts 4 and 6.

He pleaded guilty of the charges.

Supreme Court Judge, Olivier Saksak issued the sentencing on April 21 in accordance with the recent changes of penalties for sex-related offences by the Parliament.

According to the summary of the offense set out in the Judgment, the victims were two young girls, members of the perpetrator’s family by names referred to by the court as TB and PT.

“TB was almost 6 years old at the time of first offending in May 2015 and PT was almost 4 years old at the time of the first incident and 4 years 7 months old at the time of the second incident,” stated the written sentence published by the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute.

A person named by the court as Jarina Woi saw the incident inside the defendant’s house and the defendant became angry and assaulted her.

He also threatened to beat her to death if she reported the incident to anyone.

In February 2016 the offender committed the offence again to his biological daughter.

“Again Jerina Woi saw what you did at the time but she fled the scene and you further threatened her to death,” the Supreme Court judge told Tabera.

The court sets 7 aggravating features of the offence as there were 2 separate victims, the victims are young girls of 4 years 7 months and 6 months( at offendings), there is an age disparity of about of about 21 and 23 years between you and them, offender being 27-years-old, repetition of offences on the daughter PT, serious breach of trust, impact, mentally and physically on the victims, and some degree of planning occurring only when his wife was not at home.

“Considering all those facts and features together, your offendings fall within the higher end of the scale for these offences,” stated the Supreme Court Judge.

“I consider that the lead offence is sexual intercourse without consent. And as it happened with two different and very young victims on different dates with repetitions on the second victim, the starting point shall be 12 years imprisonment on each count to be served concurrently. READ MORE


SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST