Illegal immigrant raped woman to get deported

Press, 14 October 1985, Page 18

Illegal immigrant raped woman to get deported

A Tongan illegal immigrant who raped a young woman, aged 17, six weeks ago said that he had committed the offence to get himself deported to Tonga. Willie Toutai Vaiaku, a fettler, aged 27, told the police who arrested him in Oamaru on August 31 that he wanted a police case against him so that he could get sent home to Tonga because his wife had told him she was going with another man. Vaiaku. who had earlier pleaded guilty to raping the woman at Oamaru in the early hours of August 31, appeared in the High Court at Dunedin for sentence. Mr Justice Jeffries sentenced him to 2% years jail, which his Honour said was as low a sentence as he could consider in light of the circumstances of the case.

A member of the Tongan community acted as an interpreter during his Hon-

our’s remarks on sentence, because of the defendant’s limited knowledge of English. Mr W. I. Dean, of Oamaru, appeared for Vaiaku, and Mr R. P. Bates for the Crown. The rape occurred after Vaiaku broke into the complainant’s flat armed with a kitchen knife. He refused to leave when the young woman told him to and held a knive to her throat, forcing her to take off her nightdress and have sexual intercourse with him. When he left the flat two hours later, the defendant said he would cut her throat if she reported the matter to the police. When she reported the attack later the same day, she told the police that the knife was possibly a “bread and butter” knife.

For Vaiaku, Mr Dean said he had twice tried to enter New Zealand illegally. He succeeded the third time, swimming some distance from a ship to reach shore.

He came to get work so that he could send money home to his wife and children. Mr Dean described Vaiaka as a devoutly religious man, deeply involved with his church. When his wife told him a matter of a week or two before the offence that she had deserted her children and was living with another man, Vaiaku did not know he could get home by going to the authorities and declar-, ing himself an illegal immigrant. He bitterly regretted what he had done, and the fact that the complainant had to live with the reality of his actions.

His Honour said that there was much in the defendant’s life in New Zealand that was to his credit. It was a great pity that he had not confided in his church elders when his life became quite unstable, as his Honour said that he was sure they could have advised and assisted.