A man who raped his teenage daughter multiple times and allegedly caused the health complications leading to her death was jailed for 20 years by the Supreme Court.

The teenager died just before the trial started.

The father was found guilty of raping his then-15-year-old daughter multiple times between December 2014 to January 2018. 

The victim had several miscarriages from pregnancies she claimed were her father's, she later died when she was 18 years old from health complications. 

She was taken in by the Samoa Victim Support Group where she was cared for and looked after until she passed away. 

Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese accepted that the sentence for the father falls in band 4 which is 19 years to life imprisonment. 

The prosecution submitted the aggravating features were the offending involved a family member, there were multiple incidents across the years, the offending was carried out with the use of threats and violence and the victim was 15-years-old while the accused was 41.

Defence lawyer Fuimaono Sarona Ponifasio submitted three mitigating features relating to the offender. 

These included his previous good character, he was banished from his wife’s village of Fasitoo-uta and was the breadwinner of the family providing financial support for his children. 

The Probation Service pre-sentence report discussed that the defendant came from a family reliant on income from the sale of copra and cocoa. 

He left formal education at college in about Year 10 and started working on his family’s plantations. Most recently the defendant had been working at a funeral home.

Chief Justice Perese said the sentence starting point warrants a slight increase of 21 years compared to the case of Police v Faatauvaa. 

“The defendant as a first offender is entitled to a discount for his previous good behaviour and I allow a discount of six months,” he said. 

“Beyond that the cupboard is bare. The defendant continues to deny the offending and offers no expression of remorse.”

The defence submitted the defendant was banished from his wife’s village. 

His Honour noted banishment as a punishment may be taken into consideration by a sentencing judge. However, he said, there is no credible evidence that may be relied on as support for that submission. 

He added the defendant gave evidence that he had not been banished at all, but left the village of his own accord and was therefore not entitled to any other reduction in sentence.

The defendant was sentenced to 20 years and six months less the time spent in custody and the Chief Justice ordered to enter his name in the Sex Offender Registry.