John Ware

Justice Panuel Mogish, in sentencing a man last week to 22 years in prison over the sexual assault of two teenagers, said rape is a crime of violence on a female person’s body.

“It is a degrading offense that involves the sexual violation of a person’s dignity. At its highest, it (rape) portrays elements of disrespect and inequality towards a woman,” he said.

Justice Mogish said women become objects of sex, and sex alone, to men like the offender, who prey upon them and rape them.

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.