Consider protection when sentencing rapists: Mogish

By JIMMY KALEBE
RAPE is making women and girls become sexual objects rather than partners of their male counterparts, a judge said yesterday in Lae.
National Court judge Justice Panuel Mogish said rape was also imposing psychological trauma on victims and sentencing of offenders should be geared towards the protection of women and girls.
Mogish spoke while sentencing Augustine Tikot, of Vunakukuluku village in Rabaul, East New Britian and Damien Mading, of Busu Two village, Morobe to 16 years each for separate offences.
Tikot had three years suspended and seven months deducted for the time spent in custody and will serve 12 years and five  months while Mading will have three years suspended, a further one and two months deducted for time spent in custody and will serve the balance of 11 years and 10 months.
Both prisoners, after serving their terms, will be on a three-year good-behaviour bond.
Court documents presented during the plea hearing stated that Tikot committed the crime at Raun Wara, Eriku in Lae in the company of another man in February and  Mading forcefully committed the crime at his Busu Two village at about the same time.
Justice Mogish said rape was becoming prevalent everywhere in the country, with so many cases in Lae.
A day earlier a Lae-based State lawyer, Mercy Temate, called on maximum penalties for rape, saying the crime had become so prevalent that women and girls and were no longer safe at public places or at their homes.
In a separate rape case in the Lae court, Samson Ambe, of Angie village, Wapenamanda, Enga was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but would serve only five  years and six months. Three years would be suspended and the rest was deducted for time spent in custody.
Ambe was charged with committing one count of rape while on duty as a security guard at Angau General Hospital in Lae in March last year.