A woman is entitled to feel safe in her own home. Home invasion accompanied by sexual offending is not uncommon in Tonga possibly as a consequence of the limited security many homes have, a Supreme Court judge said when sentencing Paneti Sa (18) to five-years imprisonment for the predatory and callous crime when he raped a 27-year-old pregnant woman in her own home in Tongatapu, last year.

Hon. Mr Justice Cato who sentenced the prisoner on Tuesday, 19 July in Nuku'alofa said the offender lived in the same area as the complainant, who is a housewife.

The prisoner is the youngest of a large family who left school in the fifth form having failed his national examinations and was unemployed.

On September 25, 2015, between 2:00-3:00am, the complainant was still awake in her home while her two children were asleep. She heard someone walking around her house so she went to her children’s room and slept with them. She woke up after she felt someone pulling her and saw Sa holding a knife and threatening her, she was scared.

She screamed and woke up her children. Sa threw her on a bed in another room and committed the offence while her children were crying out calling her name. Then he walked away and put the knife on the table. The complainant took her children to the neighbour after he left and reported the offence to police, said the judge.

“I have read the victim's impact report, which evidences that the trauma had seriously affected both the complainant and her husband. No harm came to the baby. I have also listened to the complainant in court, as she bravely recounted her experience and said she forgave the prisoner and asked for leniency for him,” he said.

Deterrence

The judge said the complainant was known to the prisoner and this offending was objectively worse as the complainant was pregnant and her children were nearby.

He had been drinking and had used a knife to intimidate her, which he obtained from her kitchen after unlawfully entering the house. 

The starting point for the sentencing is seven years and nine-months imprisonment.

"The sentence must reflect the seriousness of this offending and be one that denounces and deters the prisoner and others from this kind of offending and is protective of women."

The judge allowed the prisoner a discount of two-years and nine-months in mitigation due to his early guilty plea, his youth, being a first time offender, his expression of remorse, his apology, which was accepted and some gifts had been made to the family in the Tongan way.

“I have also taken into account the complainant's plea for leniency on the prisoner,” he said.

Sentence

Mr Justice Cato then imposed five-years sentence for rape backdated to the time the prisoner was in custody. He suspended the final 12-months upon strict conditions and said that the prisoner has some prospect of rehabilitation.

“As against this however, is the predatory and callous nature of his crime which in my view is against any greater suspension."

He ordered the conditions of his suspension when released is that he must live where directed by his probation officer, attend courses on drug/alcohol rehabilitation and in relation to the sexual abuse of women.

In addition, the prisoner must not commit any offences punishable by imprisonment for two-years, is prohibited from drinking alcohol and will be placed on probation for the period of his suspension. Should he fail to abide by these conditions, he shall render himself liable to return to prison to serve the suspended portion of his sentence, said the judge.

On a second count of serious housebreaking, the prisoner was sentenced to three-years imprisonment, which was ordered to be served concurrently with the rape sentence and backdated.