Community policeman convicted for rape

By DEMAS TIEN
A community policeman and security guard has been sentenced to 22 years imprisonment with hard labour for raping two girls, one a minor.
John Ware, 39, from Gavuone village in Central, was convicted by the National Court in Kwikila for sexual penetration of two girls, 14 and 17, on Oct 9, 2014 at the Kupiano Station in Central.
Justice Panuel Mogish handed down the decision on sentence last Friday at the National Court in Bomana.
“The seriousness of the crime of the sexual violence against women and girls and the abhorrence of the society to this kind of crimes warrants an immediate custodial sentence,” Mogish said.
The victims were in a compound when the offender approached them and threatened to do harm to them and the employees if the victims were not released into his custody.
The offender was a community policeman.
He threatened to arrest the victims and people in the compound.
The victims were then released to his custody and he led them into a bush track where he threatened to harm them if they did not allow him to have sex with them.
In fear, the victims succumbed to his threats and he sexually penetrated them.
The court found that the offender abused his position as a community policeman to perpetrate the crimes.
The court found that the aggravating factors were that the offence was prevalent, there was a breach of trust, the offender was a security guard as well as a community policeman and that violence was used to subdue the victims was committed in the bush where the victims were defenceless and vulnerable to other dangers.
The mitigating factors were that the offender expressed remorse and apologised for his actions and he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The court found that the aggravating factors far outweighed the mitigating factors.