A 38 year old man was sentenced to five years imprisonment for rape and one year for indecent assault, after picking up his victim at a bus stop.

During a four-days trial at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court, which started on February 4, Chief Justice Gordon Ward was told that about 3 p.m. on 8 June 2002 Viliami Pupu picked up a 20-year-old girl who was waiting at the Nuku'alofa sea front bus stop for a bus to return home to the village of Ha'akame in central Tongatapu. Viliami Pupu, also from Ha'akame, drove by in his car and the girl had asked him for a ride home.

He took the girl first to Sopu Beach, and when they got there he noticed a vehicle from their village on the beach, so he drove to a tax allotment at the village of Vaotu'u where the girl claimed she was indecently assaulted and later raped by the accused.

In his summing up Chief Justice Gordon Ward said that he was satisfied that Pupu had committed a crime.