A married man who has nine children had been convicted after he was found guilty Monday for raping his 20-year-old girlfriend.
Talanoa Fainu, who was in his 40s, was convicted of rape on two occasions and is remanded in custody for sentence. A probation report was ordered after he committed the crime on 15 May 2017 at Houma.
The Supreme Court heard the pair had consensual sex on some occasions after the rape.
They previously had consensual sexual foreplay but no intercourse involved as the complainant wanted to preserve her virginity, the court was told.
On the night of the crime the complainant’s parents went looking for her and found the accused’s vehicle near their home. The accused and the complainant were inside the car.
The complainant noticed her parents and asked the accused to drive them away because she was afraid of her father if he caught her.
The accused drove at speed to a bush area where, at one stage, in the rear seat of the vehicle, sexual intercourse took place on two occasions. The victim alleged that this was not consensual.
The complainant’s parents finally found her in the accused’s workplace the following morning.
The court was told that at one stage after they found her the mother intervened to prevent her husband assaulting the accused.
Justice Cato said the complainant was giving her account honestly.
“I accept her evidence that she was a virgin and wanted to remain so until she was 21, and that the experience was painful. She also admitted that a third act of intercourse which occurred later at the accused’s workplace when she was cold and the accused had suggested to have sexual intercourse to warm her up was consensual.”
Mr. Cato said he had some concern about the possibility that the complainant had lied on the issue of whether the sexual intercourse that took place in the bush was non-consensual because she was very frightened of her father and may have falsely made a complaint of rape to placate her father.
“If that were the case and she had made a false complaint to the police then her evidence could have been tailored to advance the false complaint.”
Justice Cato said: “I am satisfied, however, on all the evidence I have heard that beyond any reasonable doubt A did not consent to intercourse on the two occasions alleged and that the accused must have known this.”
Mr. Cato said, he did not believe in Fainu in his voluntary statement that the intercourse was consensual.
