Regina v Natei [2012] SBHC 157; HCSI CRC 194 of 2012 (11 December 2012)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOLOMON ISLANDS
(PALLARAS J)

C.R.C. No. 194 of 2012

REGINA

V

NATEI

Hearing Dates: 26-28 November 2012
Verdict Delivered: 7 December 2012
Sentence Delivered: 11 December 2012

Coram: Pallaras, J.
Crown: Mr. Kelesi
Defence: Mr. Kalu

Sentence

1. The offence of buggery is proscribed by s.160 (a) of the Penal Code [CAP.26] and provides for a penalty upon conviction of imprisonment for fourteen years. It is therefore very clear that this offence is regarded by the legislature as one of the most serious offences in the criminal calendar.

2. On the 7 December 2012 you were convicted of one count of buggery in relation to a young child who was only 8 years of age. There is a very significant age disparity between you and the Complainant. You are approximately 50 years of age and old enough to be her grandfather. Your wife is the sister of the Complainant's mother making the Complainant your niece and you her uncle. You have totally breached the confidence and the trust expected of you in that relationship and have abused your authority over the child in a way that she could not avoid.

3. After giving the child some coconut juice, you tricked her into remaining behind in the garden with you on the pretext of getting her to help you do some weeding. You then told the child to hold your penis and when she refused, you bent her over and inserted your penis into her anus. She told the Court, and I have no hesitation in accepting, that she was in pain and crying while you were doing this to her.

4. At some stage you also sharpened a cassava stick with a knife you had in your possession and used the stick to (at least) rub against her anus. This no doubt also caused her enormous stress and fear.

5. At trial you accused the Complainant's mother of falsely and deliberately creating these accusations against you because of a dispute over land that you alleged existed between her and you. That proved to be a totally false accusation and one which you significantly departed from in your testimony. I found in my verdict and I repeat here, that I totally reject the false accusations that you yourself made against Lilian Tekula PW2. Your attempt to divert responsibility for your own criminal conduct to a completely innocent woman, does you no credit whatsoever.

6. Also at trial, you called your wife to testify on your behalf. While I have previously recognised the difficult position that she found herself to be in, I have no doubt after hearing the evidence and seeing the manner in which it was delivered, that the evidence she gave was given as a result of being coached by you, particularly in respect of certain dates. You spoke to her about your evidence and the evidence that she was to give while you were actually still in the process of giving evidence yourself. But your preparation of her was hurried and incomplete for she gave evidence which was in part significantly at odds with your own testimony. Your amateurish attempts to try to manufacture evidence to assist your case while at the same time placing your wife in an invidious position, also does you no credit whatsoever.

7. When the facts of this case are analysed it becomes apparent that your offence is characterised by aggression, force, intimidation, bullying and fear. Your possession of a knife and your use of it to sharpen the cassava stick was no doubt meant to, and did, instil a sense of terror into the young child who was totally helpless and at your mercy.
8. This offence is all the more deplorable when the innocence of the victim is recalled. You chose as your victim an 8 year old child, your niece. No right thinking person and particularly no parent could begin to comprehend how you could treat a child with such cruelty and contempt. These types of offences against young children represent the lowest depths that a man can sink to showing him to be a complete coward, a bully and a thorough reprobate. That's what you have now shown yourself to be.

9. The entire community of the Solomon Islands expects these courts to play their role in the struggle against such terrible crimes. They expect that when a person is found guilty of abusing a young child in such a way, that the courts will, through the sentencing process, send a clear message that these offences are intolerable and will be met with condign punishment when detected. It is a message not only to you but to any others like you who think that the children of this nation are fair game for molesters and degenerate abusers of our children.

10. I have been told on your behalf that you are married with seven children and that your separation from them will cause them considerable hardship. While there must be some hardship occasioned to your family as a result of your incarceration, it is a complete mystery to me why this possibility did not ring alarm bells for you prior to you assaulting the child as you did. Furthermore, it has often been said that in sexual offences, particularly against children, that circumstances personal to the offender typically have less effect on the sentence than in most other serious crimes.[1]

11. I am told that you are a man of previous good character.

12. It is also put on your behalf that this offence had no element of pre-planning. That is a submission which I accept.

12. Taking all of the factors put on your behalf into account together with the seriousness of the offence and the aggravating features associated with its commission, in my judgement an appropriate sentence is that of imprisonment for 7 years.

13. It is put to me that this is an appropriate case in which suspension of the sentence is appropriate. I do not agree. The offence committed by the prisoner and the aggravating features associated with it, make this offending far too serious for suspension of any part of the sentence to be appropriate.

14. It is the Order of the Court that you be imprisoned for a period of 7 years, such sentence to be backdated to 26 January, 2012.

THE COURT

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^[1] R v Ligiau & Dori [1986] SBHC 15 at p.3