Sione Fangatua Mafi has been remanded in custody for sentencing after being found guilty in the Supreme Court on multiple charges of rape.
Mafi was charged with three counts of rape and one of abduction.
Mr Justice Cato, presiding, said Mafi abducted and raped a woman three times on February 15 this year.
The victim had been drinking with friends when Mafi persuaded them to go with him in his car.
The complainant said they then went to a beach area at Kolonga and she later asked to be driven closer to where her mother lived.
It was decided they would go and drink at a cemetery which was closer to where she lived with her parents.
In the early hours of the morning Mafi dragged her into the car. She passed out and when she woke he raped her. He raped her again twice in different locations before she managed to reach home.
When her mother saw the accused she told her daughter Mafi had propositioned her in Fiji.
“This would have been a very frightening and indeed harrowing experience for any woman,” Mr Justice Cato said.
He said that he accepted that she was telling the truth and that the accused had sexual intercourse with her on three occasions that evening, all without her consent.
“I accept also that he had threatened to harm her that evening if she resisted and would only take her home if they had intercourse,” the judge said.
“I reject entirely any suggestion that the mother and complainant conspired together to falsely implicate the accused because of his action with the mother in Fiji.”
Mr Justice Cato said he had no doubt Mafi had designs on the complainant at an early stage of their meeting.
“I find the accused guilty on all counts beyond reasonable doubt, convict him accordingly and remand him in custody for sentence.”
The main points
- Sione Fangatua Mafi has been remanded in custody for sentencing after being found guilty in the Supreme Court on multiple charges of rape.
- Mafi was charged with three counts of rape and one of abduction.
- Mr Justice Cato, presiding, said Mafi abducted and raped a woman three times on February 15 this year.
- “This would have been a very frightening and indeed harrowing experience for any woman,” Mr Justice Cato said.
