Man Gaoled For Seven Years For Rape

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 13

Man Gaoled For Seven Years For Rape

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Dec. 20 “How a man of your age could behave with such brutality to a girl of seven years passes my comprehension,” Mr Justice Gresson told Titie Senio, aged 25, a freezing worker, in the Supreme Court when sentencing him to seven years’ gaol for the rape of the girl. “But for the efficient medical attention that this unfortunate child received, your violence and your unforgivable assault may have cost her her life,” said his Honour. He also made a recommendation that Senio be considered for deportation. Senio, a Tokelau Islander, had been committed for sentence in the Supreme Court after pleading guilty to the charge of raping the girl on November 20.

In mitigation, Mr N. L. Bradford said that for most of his life Senio had been unable to gain free access to liquor, but when he arrived

in New Zealand two weeks before the offence be found that he could buy liquor freely. He said Senio earned wages in the freezing works “which conceivably he would not get in six months or a year in his own country. He tells me himself that he was rather affected by the liquor he had drunk that day and I submit that it could readily be accepted in regarding the offence.” He urged the Court to consider the outcome of a term of imprisonment on Senio, having regard to his previous life in the islands. Mr C. M. Nicholson, for the Crown, urged the Court to take into account “the enormity of the offence. “This rape was merciless on a young girl who had not the strength to resist nor the maturity to steer clear of the advances made by this man. The evidence shows that he was not drunk, although he had taken liquor."