Seven years jail for policeman who violated woman in cell [1]
Monday, September 17, 2007 - 11:51. Updated on Saturday, October 25, 2014 - 11:17.
A policeman who committed "a heinous and despicable act" was confident that if the victim filed a complaint against him his fellow workers would hide it, Tonga's Chief Justice said in sentencing a constable to seven years imprisonment for raping and assaulting a woman held in a cell.
Chief Justice Anthony Ford urged the Tongan police to take appropriate action against the collaborators, "quite incredibly the female inspector in charge of the Mu'a Police station and two other police officers contributed to the bribing of the victim," he said.
Latiume Fungavai, a former Police Constable, in his thirties, residing at Kolovai, was found guilty of one charge of rape and two charges of indecent assault when he appeared for sentencing in the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court on August 14, 2007.
The court found that he assaulted and raped a 25-year-old woman in the number one cell at the Mu'a Police Station on December 24, 2005.
The victim was held in custody after she was arrested for drunkenness on the same evening. She was kept in a cell at the station after her mother filed the complaint.
Mr Justice Ford in his sentencing told Latiume that his career as a police officer, which spanned 10 years, had now come to a sudden and dramatic end.
"As a police officer your responsibility is to protect the people and uphold law and order in the country but you abused that in the worst possible way."
The Chief Justice related how on that day the victim went to a party in Nuku'alofa and she arrived home intoxicated and fought with her mother because she wanted to use their vehicle.
"The mother quite reasonably called the police and agreed to put her daughter in custody to sober her up. But while being locked up in the dark number one cell at Mu'a Police Station you indecently assaulted and raped her."
Despicable act
"This is a heinous and despicable act and you further aggravated the matter by trying to bribe the victim from filing charges against you," said the Chief Justice.
Mr Justice Ford acknowledged that Latiume was not alone in this subterfuge, "quite incredibly the female inspector in charge of the Mu'a Police station and two other police officers contributed to the bribing of the victim as well as pressuring her not to go forward.
"Your conduct towards the victim contributed to the pain she was going through by firstly trying to prevent her from reporting the matter and then pressuring her to withdraw her complaint after she made it, which might have driven her to a point of despair."
He added that, understandably the victim would have been asking if there were any honourable police office at the Mu'a station. Fortunately there were honourable police officers at the Nuku'alofa Police station who took the victim's complaint and acted upon it.
Violation of trust
"Members of the public have complete confidence in how the police operate but your conduct violated every element of that trust between the community and the police.
"In this case the principle-aggravating factor is on which the crime was committed. You strangled the victim and treated her in a despicable way then discarded her on the cell floor. And when you left you were not concerned because you were confident that if the victim filed a complaint against you, your fellow workers would hide it," he said.
Hiding crime
Chief Justice Ford said that the other serious aggravating factor, was the fact that Latiume collaborated with the Acting Police Supervisor at Mu'a station in pressuring the victim to withdraw her complaint.
"I trust that the Police authority would take the appropriate actions against this Police Supervisor at the Mu'a Police station."
He also said to Latiume, that one cannot help feeling sorry for his wife and three young children, but the fact is he should have thought about them before he committed this crime.
The Chief Justice rejected the defence counsel's submission for a suspended sentence because of the seriousness of the offence.
"You did not cooperate with the authority as you did the opposite and this court will not condone such conduct," he added.
"The seriousness of this crime is grave and this should deter the police to never abuse their trust when vulnerable people are put into their custody."
Seven years
Chief Justice Ford therefore imposed on Latiume, seven years imprisonment for rape and two years each for the two indecent assault charges. The sentence would be served concurrently making it seven years in total effective immediately.
Latiume was represented by 'Ofa Pouono and 'Aminiasi Kefu was the Crown Prosecutor.