Tongan seasonal workers jailed for sexual violation [1]
Thursday, June 4, 2020 - 18:33
Two Tongan seasonal workers, who pleaded guilty to abduction and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection of a 35-year-old woman, were imprisoned in Otago, New Zealand, on June 3.
Suliasi Fangatua (30) and Taniela Siale (22) appeared at the Dunedin District Court.
The Otago Daily Times reported that Fangatua was sentenced to five-years eight-months in prison, and Siale to four-years and nine-months in prison.
They had pleaded guilty to the charges in January.
The Court heard the men, both from Tonga, were at Cromwell’s Victoria Arms Hotel early on February 3, 2019. Eight minutes later CCTV showed them leaving the bar.
The victim was seen talking to Siale outside the establishment.
Moments later, she was seen walking across the road to a car park with two men, who told her she could get a ride home. They then dragged her over a grass bank and down a gravel path towards the lake.
This is when the two men restrained her and committed these serious offences. They spoke to each other in Tongan and laughed during the attack.
Her shoes were found in the car park, her jeans in some bushes, togs on a gravel path closer to the lake and her handbag had been thrown into the lake.
Afterwards, Siale gave his hoodie to the victim after she said she was cold. Their DNA were found on the sweatshirt.
The Court heard, the victim went back up the path to the hotel for help. While, the accused walked back to their accommodation.
The men initially denied their offending but later pleaded guilty.
The victim had multiple abrasions and bruises on her body after the attack.
Both men wrote letters expressing their remorse, but the Crown Prosecutor argued they were ‘too little, too late'.
At the same time, the judge questioned the pair's remorse, saying they both denied their actions to a probation officer.