IN THE HIGH COURT OF FIJI
At Labasa
Appellate Jurisdiction

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 21 OF 1989

Between:

ANAND PRASAD
s/o Ram Harak
Appellant

v.

THE STATE
Respondent

Appellant in Person
Ms. N. Shameem for the State

JUDGMENT

The appellant appeals against a sentence of 5 years imprisonment and 7 strokes of corporal punishment imposed by the Labasa Magistrate Court after he pleaded guilty to an offence of Rape.

The facts outlined by the prosecution and admitted by the accused tells of how the accused tricked a young girl of 10 years away from her friends on the pretext that her father wanted to see her.

He led her to a dark area where he raped her causing multiple internal and external lacerations to her private parts which necessitated a blood transfusion and hospitalisation.

In mitigation the appellant is recorded to have said he was drunk at the time of the commission of the offence.

That is not an excuse and the sooner accused persons realise that the better. If anything, drunkenness is an aggravating factor.

The only factor in the appellant's favour was his guilty plea showing some remorse, otherwise this case was as bad a case as has ever come before this court and I had seriously considered increasing the sentence of the appellant.

The appeal is dismissed, the 7 strokes of corporal punishment are hereby confirmed.

For the sake of completeness the appellant's appeal against a sentence of 12 months imprisonment for an offence of Robbery with Violence is also dismissed as being without any merit at all.

(D.V. Fatiaki)
JUDGE

Labasa,
10th November, 1989.
HAA0021J.89B