Elderly man gets 16 years for rape

AN elderly man was sentence to 16 years imprisonment with hard labour for raping a 12-year-old girl in Porgera, Enga province.
Justice Graham Ellis handed down the decision against Sinai Kurai after finding him guilty of raping a minor after threatening her with a pocket knife on Sept 20, 2008.
Kurai broke into the girl’s house at around 4am and raped her while she was sleeping.
The court found that the offender was related to the girl’s father Jim Teros.
When the father found out, he shot Kurai twice, once in his chest and leg.
The bullet wound on the offender’s chest healed without residual disability but the wound on his left leg resulted in residual disability.
Medical reports, which suggest the girl would suffer physical and mental
problems as she grows up, were
produced in court.
The offender claimed that the bullet wound he sustained on his leg had disabled him causing him to limp and needed aid when moving around.
He claimed to be paralysed, however, there was no medical report to support his claim.
Justice Ellis said rape was a very serious offence and any National Court judge would not take it lightly when handing down his or her decision.
Justice Ellis said rape had become a prevalent offence in this country where women in towns and villages were living in fear.
He said women living in small communities, in villages and remote islands and in towns, who once enjoyed freedom and tranquility, were living in fear and felt restricted.
He said that women in Porgera could now feel a little safer knowing that the offender would be kept away from pocket knives and away from them.
Meanwhile, in a separate ruling, the judge found the father of a girl guilty of grievous bodily harm and sentenced him to four years and six months in prison.
The court deducted one month from his jail term for the time he spent in custody.
He would serve 17 months in prison and three years on good behaviour bond.