Police v Timo [2016] WSSC 161 (13 June 2016)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SAMOA
Police v Timo [2016] WSSC 161

Case name:	Police v Timo
Citation:	[2016] WSSC 161
Decision date:	13 June 2016
Parties:	POLICE (Prosecution) MALOSI TIMO male of Samata and Falelima. (Defendant)
Hearing date(s):	-
File number(s):	S357/16
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Place of delivery:	Supreme Court of Samoa, Mulinuu
Judge(s):	Justice Nelson
On appeal from:
Order:	On the offence convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison. Remand in custody time to be deducted.
Representation:	A Tumua for prosecution Defendant unrepresented
Catchwords:	sexual connection
Words and phrases:
Legislation cited:
Cases cited:
Summary of decision:

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SAMOA

HELD AT MULINUU

BETWEEN:

POLICE
Prosecution

AND:

MALOSI TIMO male of Samata and Falelima.
Defendant

Counsel: A Tumua for prosecution
Defendant unrepresented

Sentence: 13 June 2016

SENTENCE

1. Malosi has pleaded guilty to committing sexual connection with a girl under 16 years of age. The prosecution summary of facts read to the defendant this morning indicates that the defendant approached the young girl because he knows her parents. The defendant is said to be a traditional healer or a “fofō Samoa.”
2. The summary says he took the young girl to a bar at Vaitele and after that to a place where they had sexual intercourse. The only problem was the girl at the time of this incident was 15 years and attending Year 10 at a local college. Which means the defendant is about 11 years older than the girl. The law of this country is there to protect underage girl from predatory behaviour by older more mature males like the defendant, who use their maturity and age to seduce young girls. And the law provides a 10 year maximum penalty for what Malosi did.
3. The circumstance of this matter are such that a prison penalty is required. To mark societys condemnation of this sort of behaviour and to send a message to young men that they cannot engage in this sort of conduct with underage females. Fofō someone your own age.
4. I accept the prosecution submission Malosi that sentence should start at 2 years in prison. From that I deduct one-quarter of the penalty namely 6 months for your guilty plea. I will treat you as a first offender because your previous conviction relates to burglary and theft not to sexual offending. You have a good pre-sentence report. I will give 6 months credit for that; that is a total of 12 months, leaves a balance of 12 months in prison.
5. You have told me there has been an apology but there has been no confirmation of that by the probation office or anyone. The victim impact report filed by the prosecution says there has been no apology. I cannot give you credit for an unconfirmed apology. There are no other deductions that can be made from your sentence Malosi.
6. On the offence convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison. Remand in custody time to be deducted. Ua e malamalama i le fa’aiuga Malosi? (Defendant said yes).
   

JUSTICE NELSON