IN THE HIGH COURT OF FIJI
AT LABASA
[CRIMINAL JURISDICTION]
Criminal Case No. HAC 41 of 2018

BETWEEN:		THE STATE

AND:			ILAITIA VUSOLO

Counsel:	Ms D Kumar for the State
		Ms K Boseiwaqa for the Accused

Date of Hearing:	24 July 2018
Date of Sentence:	26 July 2018

SENTENCE

[1]	Ilaitia Vusolo, this is your second case of rape involving a child victim. On 25 June 	2018, I sentenced you to 10 years’ imprisonment for digital rape of a 16-year girl 	after you pleaded guilty to the charge at the first reasonable opportunity. The child 	victim in that case was your niece.

[2]	In the present case, you have pleaded guilty to two representative counts of digital 	rape, one count of penile rape and one count of act with intent to cause grievous 	harm. The victim is your step-daughter.  You started sexually abusing the victim 	when she was about 10 years old. You justified your crime on the pretext of checking 	her virginity. You questioned the victim regarding her virginity by saying whether she 	had been with any men. You insisted on checking her virginity when the victim 	responded that she had not been with any men. 

[3]	The first incident occurred in 2013 when the victim was in Year 5 and residing with 	you at your home in Bua. You woke the victim up from her sleep and inserted your 	finger into her vagina. You twisted your finger around her vagina to convince her that 	the act was necessary to check her virginity.  You told the victim not to report the 	incident to anyone. 
[4]	The victim remained quiet about the incident. She did not know how her mother 	would have reacted if she had reported the incident to her. She knew you were an 	authority figure in the family. 

[5]	You used your authority and continued to sexually violate the victim by digitally 	penetrating her with your finger on the pretext of verifying her virginity. She kept 	quiet about the incidents. 

[6]	In March 2018, you had sexual intercourse with the victim. On this occasion, when 	you woke her up from her sleep, she got scared and called out to her mother. You 	punched her on her ribs to subdue her and get her to consent to sexual intercourse. 	She sobbed quietly fearing further violence if she resisted while you raped her. She 	felt severe pain that night. She was so traumatised that she did not sleep. 

[7]	Later on the same month, you approached the victim at night time and told her to 	remove her underwear.  She complied out of fear. You told her that you were going to 	stitch her vulva to remind her that you were the first man she had sex with and that it 	would remain stitched until the day she got married. You forced the victim to hold a 	pestle for pounding garlic in her mouth to prevent her from screaming. The victim 	experienced severe pain when you ran the needle with cotton thread to stitch her 	genital. The victim did not report to anyone because she feared you. 

[8]	The abuse came to light when the victim’s cousins noticed a black cotton thread 	around the victim’s genital when they went for a swim in the river near their home. 	The case was reported to police. The stiches were removed by a doctor on 4 May 	2018. 

[9]	In your police statement you made full admissions. 

[10]	You are 32 years old and come from a poor background. By the time you were born, 	your parents had separated. Your father had no role in your upbringing.  Your mother 	raised you with the assistance of her family. You left school after Year 8. When you 	became an adult you got married. You have three children of your own and you have 	adopted three children from your spouse’s earlier marriage. You farm and sell root 	crops for a living.  

[11]	In assessing the seriousness of the offences, I take into account that both rape and act 	with intent to cause grievous harm are punishable by life imprisonment.   The tariff 	for rape of a child is 10-16 years imprisonment (Raj v State [2014] FJSC 12; 	CAV0003.2014  (20 August 2014)).  I repeat what I said when sentencing you in
 	your earlier case of rape of another child. 

[12]	Rape of a child is one of the most serious forms of sexual violence. Children are 	vulnerable members  of  our  society. They are entitled to live their lives free from 	any form of physical or emotional abuse. They are entitled to trust their family 	members to protect them and keep them safe from sexual violence. When family 	members outrage against sexual violence on children.  

[13]	The tariff for act with intent to cause grievous harm is between 6 months 	imprisonment to 5 years imprisonment, and in cases where a weapon is used, the 	starting point should range from 2 years imprisonment to 5 years, depending on the 	nature of the weapon (State v Mokubula  [2003] FJHC 164; HAA0052J.2003S (23 	December 2003)). Further, the offence may be aggravated by the seriousness of the 	injuries, premeditation or planning, length and nature of the attack and vulnerability 	of the victim. 

[14]	I take into account that you have entered an early guilty plea and relieved the victim 	the trauma of giving evidence in court.  Your plea is consistent with your admissions 	to police. For your guilty plea I give you a discount of 3 years. At the time when you 	committed the offences, you had a clean criminal record.  I treat your clean record as 	a mitigating factor. I give little weight to your personal and family circumstances as 	mitigating factors. 

[15]	The aggravating factors are overwhelming. The victim was your step-daughter. She 	came to live with you when her mother married you. As her step-father you were 	responsible for her safety and security. But you used her as an object of your lust over 	a prolonged period of time. You were deceptive in justifying your conduct in the 	pretext of being concerned about her virginity. The victim suffered humiliation and 	severe pain every time you violated her. 

[16]	This is probably one of the worst cases of sexual violence on a child that has come 	before the courts in Fiji. Physical violence was inflicted on the child to get her to 	consent to sexual intercourse. The child was subjected to further humiliation and pain 	when you sew her genital with a needle and cotton thread. She suffered in silence for 	a long period of time. The physical wound may heal but the psychological trauma 	may remain for the rest of her life. 

[17]	Your remand period had been taken into account in your earlier case. 

[18]	Despite your early guilty plea, the Court is justified to impose a long prison sentence 	to reflect the seriousness of your actual conduct and to denounce and deter that 	conduct.  On each count of rape, you are sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment, and for 	act with intent to cause grievous harm, you are sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment, 	to be served concurrently. The total effective sentence is 14 years’ imprisonment, to 	be served concurrently with your pre-existing sentence.  Making sentences cumulative 	will offend the totality principle. I fix a new non-parole period of 12 years.  

[19]	The offence you committed constitutes domestic violence under the Domestic 	Violence Act.  You are issued with a permanent Domestic Violence Restraining Order 	(DVRO) with standard no contact and no molestation conditions. The DVRO is 	necessary to protect the victim in future from you. The DVRO will remain active until 	you are living. If you breach the DVRO, you may be charged with the offence of 	breaching a DVRO.

						…………………………………..
						Hon. Mr. Justice Daniel Goundar		    
Solicitors:
Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for the State
Office of Legal Aid Commission for the Accused