PUBLIC PROSECUTOR<
-VS-
FABRISIO SARVUM
Coram: Mr Justice Oliver A
Saksak
>
Mr William Falau, Clerk of
Court
Counsel:ector Wilson Garae,
State Prosecutor for Public Prosecutor
Mr Hillary Toa for the
Defendant
SENTENCE
Charge: Unlawful Sexual
Intercourse contrary to section 97(1) of the Penal Code Act [C5]
Plea: Guilty
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This defendant appears before
me charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl of 8 years old. He
pleads guilty
to the charge.
The incident took place at Port
Olry, East Santo on 27th March 1999 in a kitcouse. The defendant asked
ked
the victim
where her parents had gone to and was told that they had gone to
the garden. On hearing this the defendant asked the victim
to go into the
kitchen house where he locked the door, put a sack on the ground and asked
the girl to lay down. The defendant
then removed the girl's pants and his
own clothes and had sexual intercourse with the girl. She felt a lot of pain
and
saw blood. He told the girl to tell a lie to her parents if they
discovered and enquired. Indeed she was found out and taken
to the local
clinic to be examined the next day. Examination revealed a ruptured hymen,
bruises around the vaginal walls,
a little bleeding and pain.
On the defendant's own ple
guilty and the evidence from the prosecution witnesses read and referred to
by by the Prosecutor,
the Court enters a conviction against the defendant.
In mitigation I am told that
the defendant is 18 years old in a family of 5 plus onpted child. He
left seft school in
1993 at class 6. He has been in the village all his life with
no exposure to the outside world, even another island of Vanuatu.
I am told
that the defendant is a shy boy who is sometimes withdrawn in character. He
seems to be illiterate and had
to be assisted by his village chief as
interpreter when giving his statement to the police. I am told that the
defendant
never had any previous sexual experiences and that this was his
first experience I am told that the defendant developed the
idea when he
watched some videos which are being shown in his village by someone
commercially. I am told that he is extremely
sorry and remorseful for what
he did and has undertaken in Court that it would be his last. I am told that
the defendant
is a first offender with no previous convictions. That he
co-operated fully with the police beginning at the time he came all
the way
from Port Olry to Luganville and voluntarily presented himself to the
police.
Further that he admitted the
offence freely in Court today. It is submitted fence Counsel that the
Court should take
these factors into account when sentencing the defendant
and he impressed upon the Court not to impose a custodial sentence
but a
suspended prison term only.