State v Lata [2013] FJMC 328; Criminal Case 183.2013 (4 September 2013)

IN THE MAGISTRATE COURT OF FIJI
AT RAKIRAKI
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL CASE NO. 183/13

BETWEEN:

THE STATE

AND:

SALESHNI LATA

Prosecution: Cpl Chin Samy
Accused: Ms Tarai (Legal Aid Office)

SENTENCE

1. Saleshni Lata you pleaded guilty to the offence of Giving False Information to a Public Servant contrary to section 201 of the Crimes Decree No. 44 of 2009.
   
2. You pleaded guilty voluntarily to the charge when it was read and explained. You also accepted the facts tendered by prosecution.
   
3. The Court therefore accepted your guilty plea to be unequivocal and convicted you as charged.
   

Facts

4. On 13th July 2012 at Rakiraki Police Station, you gave a statement to WPC 4690 Saleshni that your father in law namely Mahesh Prasad had forceful sexual intercourse with you. Thereafter investigations were carried out and the said Mahesh Prasad was charged for the offence of Rape.
   

Later on 19th November 2012 you then gave your withdrawal statement to WPC 3403 Sovaia that your father in law didn't rape you but that the two of you had sexual intercourse voluntarily.

You were then caution interviewed and charged for the alleged offence. You also admitted the allegation in your caution interview.

Mitigation

5. Your counsel submitted written mitigation and I take the following in your favor:
   
   • Your guilty plea.
   • This is your first offence.
   • You've remorseful, promised not to re-offend and also requested for a non-custodial sentence.
     

Tariff

6. The prescribed penalty for this offence is a maximum imprisonment term of 5 years.

There is no fixed tariff for this type of offending. Nonetheless I wish to acknowledge and thank Ms Tarai for referring to a High Court and Magistrate Court decision in her submission that suggests some sentencing guideline for this type of offending. The cases referred to are Fazir v State [2008] FJHC 319; HAA025.2008 & State v Pranjivan [2012] FJMC 344; Criminal Case 1292.2012 .

In light of the above mentioned cases I would take the tariff as between 1month - 12 months imprisonment. The appropriate sentence to be arrived at will depend on the relevant aggravating and mitigating factors to be considered by the court.

Sentence

7. For the said offence I commence your sentence at 12 months imprisonment. I don't see any aggravating factors except what is subsumed as elements of the offence.
   
8. For your mitigation and this being your first offence I reduce your sentence by 3 months. For your guilty plea I further deduct your sentence by 4 months. Your final sentence is therefore 5 months imprisonment.
   
9. You need to be given an opportunity to reform yourself as you have a good background. Therefore in my opinion it would be appropriate to in the circumstances to suspend your sentence. Your sentence of 5 months imprisonment will be suspended for 2 years.
   
10. If you commit any offence within the operational period of 2 years, you'll be further charged for breaching this suspension order and if convicted, you'll be made to serve the 5 months imprisonment or part of it with any other punishment imposed in that other offence.
    
11. This Court will be lenient and merciful to you now. However I'm warning you that if you've convicted before this Court for any similar offence in future, the Court will not be lenient on you.
    
12. 28 days to appeal.
    

____________________________
Samuela Qica
Resident Magistrate

4th September 2013