Tailoni Mafi (39) was today jailed for 22-months for serious housebreaking and serious indecent assault committed on a young woman, who was asleep at her home in Tongatapu.

Lord Chief Justice Whitten QC sentenced him, after finding him guilty on both counts on May 12 at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court.

On April 2, 2019 the defendant broke into the complainant's home and committed the serious indecent assault. The complainant and the accused were known to each other.

The Lord Chief Justice said, the probation officer described the defendant as 'a dangerous person'.

“He is not a first-time offender. He did not co-operate with the police. The offending was premeditated and no other diminution in culpability can be identified,” he said. 

"Through his not guilty pleas, he sought to attack the victim's credibility at trial, without success and he has shown no remorse or acceptance of responsibility since, the seriousness of the offending and the disgraceful invasion of a woman's home at night and taking advantage of her while she was asleep without her husband."

Even though, the Crown submitted and the probation officer recommended partial suspension, neither provided a principled basis for doing so, he said.

"The only conceivable argument in favour of some suspension is the aspiration, more than likelihood that the defendant might take the opportunity offered by such a sentence to rehabilitate himself."

The Lord Chief Justice sentenced Mafi to two-years nine-months imprisonment.

The final 11-months was suspended for two years, on conditions.