A married man, Talanoa Fainu, aged in his 40s, a father of nine children, was convicted of raping his 20-year-old girlfriend in a car in a bush area near Houma on 15 May last year. He was remanded in custody after the ruling was made by Justice Cato of the Tonga Supreme Court on Monday 23 April.

The Court was told that the complainant and the accused were in a consensual sexual relationship prior to the alleged rape but that in all of their amatory meetings the complainant never penetrated the victim as she wanted to preserve her “virginity”.  On the night of the alleged offence, the victim agreed to secretly meet the accused in his car near her home in the early hours of the morning. The complainant and the accused met in the car before the complainant asked the accused to drive them away after she became frightened when she realized that her father was looking at the car. The accused drove his car off with the complainant.

Justice Cato stated in his ruling “…later she had second thoughts and told the accused she wanted to go home and started to regret what she did. She told him to go back but he did not take her home. He drove fast and she said she started to cry. The accused drove to a bush area where, in the rear seat of the vehicle, sexual intercourse took place on two occasions. A (the complainant) alleged that this was not consensual. The accused gave evidence that it was.”

The accused testified in court and stated "What had happened. I would not have gone there if [the complainant] had not allowed me to go over to her place. Everything that we did was consensual before we did it."

Justice Cato concluded in his ruling “I consider that he was determined to have sexual intercourse with her reflecting his expression of entitlement expressed in his voluntary statement that she had allowed him to have access to her body.”

“I consider beyond any reasonable [doubt] that he must have appreciated that on both occasions there was a real risk that she did not want intercourse which he deliberately chose to disregard, and was reckless. On this basis also, I would find him guilty of rape on both occasions.”

Justice Cato dismissed notions that the complainant was acting out of fear of her father.

“Whilst I accept the father was very angry at what had happened, I do not consider that he had pressured his daughter into making a false complaint. Rather he had embraced her when he found her at the accused's workplace with his wife who impressed me as an honest and caring person.”

Following the verdict, Cato ordered that the accused be remanded in custody until sentencing on June 1.

Mr Kefu and Ms Fakatou appeared for the prosecution. The accused appeared in person.