Sisi Pale (34) has been sentenced to serve a combined imprisonment sentence of six and a half-years for the robbery and rape of a woman who was home alone at Sopu during a group break-in on June 10, 2014.

The prisoner, who is a husband and father of eight children, lived in Lapaha.

Mr Justice Cato in delivering his sentence on Friday, 5 February said he and five other men were driving around the Sopu area at about 11:00pm in a truck belonging to him.

He said one of them pointed out a house where goods could be found and said the residents were elderly.

The man who had provided this information got dropped off at his home, while the others returned at about 3:00pm and entered the house. The prisoner climbed up a pipe and entered the house on the first floor; he then opened the entrance doors for the other robbers to come in. The woman who was home alone was still asleep in her bedroom.

The judge said the three men including the prisoner entered with their faces covered. Two of them tied up the victim while Pale threatened her not to make a noise.

She was tied to the bed while they proceeded to remove goods and a large amount of the property was removed and taken out into the truck. 

The prisoner then returned alone into the house and proceeded to digitally abuse the victim. He raped her while she was still tied up.

"This must have been a terrifying ordeal for the complainant who was a woman alone in the house at the time," said the judge.

Pale had pleaded guilty to the rape after initially pleading not guilty on February 5, 2015. He changed his plea shortly before the trial was due to start.

Mr Justice Cato said fact that the rape was preceeded by a home invasion with the victim being disabled by a number of men including Pale means that was still very serious and fixed a starting point of seven-years.

His offending that night had the prisoner's counsel Mr Niu submitted was the product of a large amount of alcohol being consumed by the group.

That might explain his aberrant conduct which was out of character but the fact that his behaviour my have been induced by excessive alcohol consumption is not a factor that can mitigate his offending, he said.

The judge said the appropriate sentence for rape is five-years imprisonment.

He said the most significant mitigating factor is his guilty plea although late. By pleading guilty he had at least saved the victim from having to relive the ordeal although the lateness of his plea disminishes the discount because the victim had to live with the prospect of having to give evidence for a very long time, an ordeal in itself. 

He was a first offender and it was implied that he is remorse and had assumed responsibility for his actions.

At the same time, the prisoner was already sentenced to six-years for robbery with the last 18-months suspended on April 28, 2015.

"In my view it is appropriate to accumulate in part of the sentence of rape with that of robbery as they do out of criminal enterprise. Addition to six-years for robbery, a further two of the five-years imprisonment imposed for rape should be served by the prisoner before he is released on suspension. This means he will serve a combined prison sentence of six and a half-years for both offences and only then will the 18-months suspension portion of the robbery be allowed for his release."