Law enforcement officers should expect to be severely punished if they offend the law and violate the rights of other persons.
Justice Panuel Mogish told the father of seven children, John Ware, when sentencing him to 22 years of hard labour in prison.
Ware worked as a community policeman and a security guard at the Treasury office at Kupiano station when he sexually assaulted two girls, one a minor then.
The victims were aged 17 and 14-years-old at the time of the offense.
The 39-year-old from Gavuone village, Central Province, pleaded guilty to the offense on Oct 11 and was sentenced last Friday by Justice Mogish.
On Oct 9, 2014, Ware took the girls from the Kupiano station Works compound to an old army camp hill, past a secondary school, where he sexually assaulted them.
Justice Mogish told the court that the victims were in the compound when the offender accosted them and threatened to harm them, and those at the compound, if the victims were not released to his custody.
“He even boasted that he was a community policeman and threatened to have the victims and those inside the compound arrested. He even went to the extent of lying that he was the victims’ uncle,” said Justice Mogish.
“In fear of their safety, the victims were released into his custody. He led the victims into the bush track where he threatened harm if they did not allow him to have sex with them.
“In fear, the victims succumbed to his threats and after the ordeal, he promised to give each of them K500.”
The judge said the offender over abused his position as a community policeman to perpetrate these crimes, adding those classes of individuals are expected to know the law more than an average person.
“If they flout the law, they must expect severe repercussions. For the offender, he does not deserve to be called community policeman. He is a disgrace to the uniform he wears.”
Picture source: Times Live