Regina v Fititei [2009] SBHC 78; HCSI-CRC 389 of 2006 (6 February 2009)

HIGH COURT OF SOLOMON ISLANDS
(Mwanesalua, J)

Criminal Case No. 389 of 2006

REGINA

V

PATTERSON FITITEI

Date of Hearing: 4 February 2009
Date of Sentence: 6 February 2009

Mr. Seuika for Prosecution
Ms. Waqavonovono for Accused

SENTENCE

Mwanesalua, J:

1. You, Patterson Fititei, pleaded guilty to two counts of incest. You were accordingly convicted on them upon your own guilty pleas. You committed the offences on unknown dates between 1st and 31st August 2004, at Buma Village, in the Isabel Province.
   
2. Your victim is your own daughter. She was 14 years old when you committed the offences and was the first of your two daughters. You committed the first of the two offences when you and the victim were collecting coconuts in a coconut plantation. You grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side of a stream where you had sexual intercourse with her. You committed the second offence in your family house in the village after your wife had gone to the garden.
   
3. You committed the offences in August 2004 and committed for trial at the High Court on 8 August 2006. You were remanded in custody pending trial from 8 August 2006 but released on bail on 5 December 2006, on condition among others that you report at Kukum Police Station every Friday between 8am and 4pm. You breached those conditions. You were subsequently arrested and placed in custody again from 30 August 2008 until today, 6 February 2009. In all, you were in custody awaiting trial for a total of 7 months and 2 days to date.
   
4. You admitted your wrong doing according to custom, and paid $500.00 compensation to the relatives of your daughter. You pleaded guilty on arraignment. That avoids the need for a trial, saves considerable costs on witnesses and saves witnesses from concerns about testifying in court, especially the victim. The court regards you as a first offender with no previous convictions as no records of previous convictions before the court. The court takes these mitigating factors in your favour.
   
5. As your advocate reminded the court in her mitigation submissions on your behalf, incest is a serious offence. It carries a maximum sentence of 7 years imprisonment. The offences are morally wrong and are against custom and law. It is destructive of the family relationship and is a breach of the trust reposed on you as a father to care and protest your daughter.
   
6. There was some delay in your trial. However, you were partly to blame as you failed to keep your reporting conditions at the Kukum Police Station and lost contact with your former advocates. That prevented the court from proceeding with your trial earlier when your case was initially listed for trial.
   
7. The gravity of the offence of incest varies greatly according, primarily, to the age of the victim, the degree of coercion or corruption. There is one aggravating factor in your case. That is that your daughter was merely 14 years old, a child, when you committed your offences upon her.
   
8. The community in this jurisdiction still regards the offence of incest with repugnance and therefore the element of deterrence is considered in your sentence. You will therefore serve a custodial sentence. This court is of the opinion, that having regard to the facts of your case, the upper range for the sentences to be imposed on you would be 4 years imprisonment.
   
9. (a) On Count 1 you will serve a term of 4 year's imprisonment. This term is to be reduced by 1 year to take account of your guilty plea, the mitigating factors taken in your favour and the period you were remanded in custody from 8 August 2006 to 5 December 2006.
   

(b) On Count 2 you will serve a term of 4 year's imprisonment. This term is to be reduced by 1 year to take account of your guilty plea, the mitigating factors taken in your favour and the period you were remanded in custody from 8 August 2006 to 5 December.

(c) The sentences are to be served concurrently and to begin from 30 August 2008. The result is that you, PATTERSON FITITEI will only serve a sentence of 3 years in prison commencing from 30 August 2008, the date when you were placed in custody until today, after you breached your bail conditions.

Order Accordingly.

THE COURT