Man gets 16 years for rape

 By ROSELYN ELLISON

A MAN has been sentenced to 16 years in jail for rape, after a judge rejected his alibi that he was elsewhere at the time of the offence.

National court judge Justice Nicholas Kirriwom told Robin Andolu of Kandinge village in the Wosera-Gawi district, East Sepik, that his alibi was weak.

The Wewak court heard that the incident happened between 5am and 6am on June 23, 2010, at the Makun settlement. 

Andolu and four other men went to the woman’s home and forcefully entered it after she refused to let them in.

They were armed with one-metre long bush knife and a homemade shotgun.

They rushed in and overpowered her, removed her shorts and sexually assaulting her.

Andolu told the court that he was sound asleep at Boram bridge settlement at the time.

But the woman said Andolu was one of the five men who raped her. She said he could not have been in two places at the same time – sleeping at the Boram bridge settlement and sexually attacking her in her own house at Makun settlement.

Justice Kirriwom agreed and said the alibi was weak and had too many holes in it.

He deducted seven months from the jail term for the time Andolu spent in custody while awaiting trial.