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State v Bai [2010] FJHC 545; HAC079.2010 (30 November 2010)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF FIJI
AT SUVA
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

HIGH COURT CRIMINAL CASE NO.: HAC 079 OF 2010

BETWEEN:

STATE
Prosecution

AND:

PETERO BAI
Accused Person

Date of Hearing: 16/11/2010 – 26/11/2010.
Date of Summing Up: 29th November, 2010.
Date of Sentence: 30th November, 2010.

Counsel: Mr Toganivalu - For State
Ms. B. Malimali - For Accused Person

SENTENCE

[1] You have been convicted after a trial of two extremely serious offences committed against an eight year old girl, namely, rape and doing an act intending to cause grievous bodily harm.

[2] At the time of the offences the victim was attending Annesley School. On the morning of 25th March 2010 she was escorted to her classroom by two young boys who were pupils at Dudley school, which is just across the road from Annesley School.

[3] After they had dropped her off they were making their way towards the back gate leading to their school when they saw you in the passageway leading to the girls toilet block at Annesley School. They both knew you; both of them had seen you on many previous occasions and both of them were quite adamant that it was you.

[4] The evidence does not reveal exactly what happened thereafter but it is clear that at some point during the morning the victim went to the toilet block. You were lying in wait; whether you were lying in wait for her or simply for any girl who might enter the toilet block I do not know. In any event, you attacked her causing very serious injury and rendering her unconscious. While she was unconscious you then carried out a sexual assault upon her. The account which you gave to the police in your confession statement as to the circumstances of the sexual assault was that you had put both your finger and your penis into her vagina. This account was fully supported by the medical evidence in the trial. You caused a significant injury to the hymen.

[5] When you had finished with the victim you locked the door of the cubicle where this had occurred and climbed over into the adjoining cubicle and made good your escape, leaving this grievously injured child lying unconscious on the floor of a locked cubicle, not caring whether she lived or died. You also managed somehow to leave your silver chain on the floor of the cubicle where this assault had occurred; it was later recovered by the police and you admitted as part of your confession that it was your chain, an admission also confirmed by your partner.

[6] At the end of the morning two girls visited the toilet block and heard the sounds of a person moaning. They reported back to their teacher who went to the toilet block to find the victim lying on the floor of a locked cubicle. The caretaker was summoned to open the cubicle; following that, the emergency services were summoned and the victim taken immediately to hospital.

[7] On reception at the hospital the victim was found to be very seriously injured; appropriate and swift medical attention saved her life. It is not known at this comparatively early stage what the long-term consequences for her may be. She has no memory, mercifully, for what happened to her, at least at this point in her young life.

[8] It is difficult to imagine a more serious and horrifying offence committed against a young child and there is no explanation advanced as to how you came to commit such a terrible crime. I cannot speculate as to why you should have targeted a child; what I must do and what the public would expect me to do is to pass a sentence that properly reflects the horror and outrage that members of the public must feel in relation to this offence.

[9] You were, in my judgement, rightly found not guilty of attempted murder; however, in deciding the approach to sentence for the rape of which you were properly convicted, I make it clear that I reflect in the sentence I pass the serious aggravating feature represented by the extreme level of gratuitous violence used by you.

[10] The only mitigation available to you is your age; you are only 21 and I make some allowance for that fact.

[11] The offences of which you stand convicted both carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. For the offence of rape, in the light of the serious aggravating features represented by the use of extreme violence, I sentence you to a term of 15years. I pass a concurrent sentence of 10 years for the offence of violence. I set a non-parole period of 12 years.

That is the sentence of the Court.

Graham Cottle
JUDGE

At Suva
30th November, 2010.