YOUR GLORY DAYS ARE OVER: COURT TOLD RAPISTS

The High Court has sentenced a man from Western Province to 13 years prison sentence for the rape of an 18 year old high school student in Gizo, Western Province.

Dick Alu was convicted on two counts of rape.

In 2010, the young student was one of the passengers travelling in an outboard motor canoe that Alu was driving from Gizo.

She was returning to her home village in Lambu-Lambu.

All the men on board, including Alu, were drinking beer at the time.

He dropped off all the passengers at their destinations until the victim was the only one remaining in the canoe.

But instead of dropping her off at her village, Alu took the canoe out to the open sea and raped her.

He then turned the boat back to Gizo and raped the victim for a second time at a market stall there.

Mr Alu will serve nine years for the first count of rape and four years for the second count – a total of 13 years.

Meanwhile, High Court Judge Stephen Pallaras says the glory days of rapists are over, and he will do everything in his power to sentence rape offenders appropriately for their crimes.

Pallaras made the statement before sentencing two men convicted of rape, at the High Court Friday morning.

He said the penalty for rape is life imprisonment, but the Court follows a practice that may have contributed to an increase of sexual offending with lenient sentences.

And, Judge Pallaras says those practices are over.

He warns – family, friends and young male relatives who might see these two men as heroes must know, the Glory days of rapists are over.