BY ROMINAH FAKA
A 47-year-old has been slapped with a 11-year prison term for raping a young woman living with a medical condition.
The victim was 20 years old at the time of incidence.
Christopher Sugui had denied the charge of rape and a trial was carried out last year.
Delivering the sentence recently, High Court Judge John Keniapisia ordered a head-sentence of 11 years for Mr Sugui.
Mr Keniapisia said this should serve as a deterrence for any other like-minded persons from committing rape.
Court imposed a starting point sentence to reflect the gravity of the offence at eight years’ imprisonment.
After, Court looked through the aggravating factors including the physical force involved, the incident occurring at night at an isolated location, the accused being drunk, the big age disparity, victim being a vulnerable person with significate disability and the psychological harm the incident has put on the victim and her family.
For all the above six serious aggravating factors, court made an uplift from the starting point sentence to 14 years imprisonment. That is one year in respect of each aggregating factor.
Defence submitted the mitigating factors which involve Sugui’s personal circumstances, delay and compensation being paid in custom.
Court then deducted three years as a result of the valid mitigating factors. Therefore, the final head sentence court imposed on Sugui was 11 years’ imprisonment.
Court heard that Sugui is from Mwaniwiriwiri village, East Bauro, Makira island, and the victim is from Kaonasugu Village, West Bauro, Makira island.
The victim is an epileptic female person.
On April 11, 2019, at about 12am, the victim was walking back home. She had left home earlier that day because her parents had an argument.
On her way back, Sugui jumped out from the bush, held her hand tightly and asked her for sex.
The victim was frightened as the defendant had a strong smell of beer, he was drunk and was not talking properly.
The defendant pulled the complainant to the side of the road and using his right hand held the victim’s mouth shut. The victim struggled and pulled back to avoid Sugui taking her to the bush.
Court heard that Sugui then pulled down his trousers and also took off the victim’s trousers and shirt. He dragged the victim to sit down and laid her on the ground.
On the ground, Sugui laid down on top of the victim and had sexual intercourse with her.
During this course of rape, the victim’s mother and another person arrived at the scene, and Sugui got up and escaped.
Jonathan Auga acts for crown and Mr. Bosa act for Christopher Sugui.
