Four years in prison for a night outing gone wrong

By Lagi Keresoma/

Apia, Samoa – 30 August 2024 – A young man is serving a 4 years jail sentence after being convicted on 6 charges that also finds his name on the Sex Offenders Registry.

The charges are burglary, theft, attempted rape, intentional damage, threat to kill and being armed with a dangerous weapon.

On 12 April 2024, at around 2.00am, the defendant approached a young female who was drinking by the pool side with her friends.

After joining them, the female and friends went for a swim in the pool and the defendant later took the female’s car keys that were on the table and drove off towards Vaitele.

Around that area, he broke into a house where three overseas female missionaries were staying. He stripped and stood over one of the missionary’s bed who woke up, saw the defendant and screamed which woke up her other colleagues.

The defendant threatened to kill them then ordered them to comply with his wishes and started assaulting them sexually.

Angry with the women refusing his demands, he went to the kitchen to get a knife and the women acted to close the door and turned a bed over to block the door.

One of the women called the police who arrived and caught the defendant outside the house.

Police said the defendant had been fined $1000 tala and banished by his village. But Chief Satiu Simativa Perese said not to confuse fining of such offences with the Ifoga which is recognised by the court as a mitigating factor.

Because of the trauma the missionaries went through, they have returned to their country. The defendant is now serving four years in jail and his name entered in the Sex Offenders Registry.