Romane v Regina [2005] SBHC 29; HCSI-CRC 144 of 2004 (15 December 2005)

HIGH COURT OF SOLOMON ISLANDS

Criminal Case No. 144 of 2004

STEPHEN ROMANE

–v-

REGINA

(KABUI, J.).

Date of Hearing: 14th December 2005.
Date of Sentence: 15th December 2005.

R. Iomea for the Crown.
L. Kershaw for the Prisoner.

SENTENCE

Kabui, J. I found you guilty of raping the complainant and convicted you of that offence on 12th December 2005. It is now my duty to sentence you. The maximum punishment for the offence of rape imposed by the law is imprisonment for life. I will not send you to prison for life because section 24(2) of the Penal Code Act (Cap.26), “the Code” does give me a discretionary power to impose a sentence that is shorter than imprisonment for life.

Before I do that, I need to take into account the mitigating factors advanced by your Counsel on your behalf. First of all, you are of good character without any relevant previous criminal convictions. That is a plus factor in your favour. You are basically a good man. Good men do make mistakes and you are one of them. You made a mistake when you decided to take away the complainant from her home and did not return her as you had promised her that you would do. If you had done what you had told her you would do, you would have escaped from the wrong doing of which you had been accused by the State. In the first place, you would not have come to any harm with the law if, on finding out that Gara was not at home, you simply went back or that you would call back later for Gara.

It would seem that at that time, you were bent on finding Gara. The complainant told you that she did not know Gara’s whereabouts and so it was rather pointless taking the complainant along to find Gara. It would seem that you treated the complainant as a substitute for Gara, at least for company, but taking her to your house and into your room and doing what you did to her changed the whole picture in terms of your mind-set at that time.

There is evidence that that you and your other friends inside the taxi were consuming alcohol. Your sense of judgment might have been influenced by alcohol that you were taking that evening inside the taxi. There is evidence that you had gone to Naha to collect a girl there but you were not successful and so you came to Leggakiki to collect Gara but you did not find her and you took her sister, the complainant.

I take into account your family circumstance and that you used no force or threats against the complainant. I also take into account the fact that the complainant sustained no physical injuries in the course of spending the night with you.

I am sure you regretted what you did but that is too late. You have offended against the law for which you must be punished. If you were to blame anyone for your fate, I wonder what you would say in this case. Would you blame the use of alcohol or yourself or your friends inside the taxi or fate?

I have no pleasure in punishing you or anyone for that matter. The law however dictates that you must be punished for the offence you committed. I am sure such punishment will be devastating for you and your family. However, the family of the complainant must have also been devastated by your action against their daughter. The State also has the responsibility of enforcing the criminal law against those who break it. Society at large is concerned about the maintenance of law and order in this country in that every person in Solomon Islands is entitled to protection under the law of this land. Punishment is therefore part of the justice system of this land and may be applied with mercy where the circumstances of the case do call for mercy to be demonstrated.

Often the courts are criticized for passing sentences that are either too lenient or too harsh. As is often said, sentencing is not a science of numbers in terms of fixed number of years for rape. It is an art developed within the broad bounds of legal principles. An appeal is the way to rectify a lenient sentence or a harsh sentence. Criticism in the media does no good to the prisoner or the State.

In your case, although the complainant protested, you used no force against her. However, lack of protest after penetration was no consent in your case. That is the law.

I sentence you to imprisonment for two years to be effective from the date you went into custody. Your Counsel told me that you had spent two weeks in custody on being charged with defilement in the first place. That period of detention will be deducted accordingly from your total period of imprisonment. I order accordingly.

Some quarters in the community may regard this sentence as being too lenient for a rapist. What they do not understand is that there are various degrees of rape, if one likes to use that term to describe rape with aggravating factors, less aggravating factors and no aggravating factors. There are other factors as well that may come into play when the Court is considering a sentence. The case may be stale due to long delay in that the prisoner has not been tried within a reasonable time. Furthermore, punishment is not just imposing long custodial sentences for all cases of rape.

I do feel that a sentence of imprisonment for two years is the proper sentence for your case.

You of course do have the right of appeal.

F.O. Kabui
Puisne Judge