A Tongan teacher has been sentenced to two years and ten months imprisonment for sexually assaulting five boys with the last 12 months suspended.
Tēvita Pōʻese Mahe, 24, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of Tonga to five counts of indecent assault on a male child under 12 years of age contrary to section 125 of the Criminal Offences Act for which the maximum sentence is 7 years imprisonment.
Mahe was sentenced to one year and 10 months on two counts of sexual assault and four months’ imprisonment on three counts of indecency. The sentences are to be served concurrently.
Justice Charles Cato suspended the final 12 months of Mahe’s imprisonment on counts four and five on the conditions that Mahe:
- Commit no further offences punishable by imprisonment for the period of suspension
- Is placed on probation for that period
- Attends a course on child abuse under the direction of probation and the Women and Children’s crisis centre during the period of his suspension.
The prison sentences were backdated to his period of being remanded in custody.
The judge said that the incident had ben humiliating and taken place in the presence of others boys. The sentences would have been longer if there had been evidence of injury.
The court was told that on September 14, 2015 Mahe had in his care four primary school students aged between 9 and 11. About midday they went with him and another teacher to an allotment to bring coconuts and bananas.
Mahe and the students were in the back of the truck. The other teacher was in the driver’s cab.
Mahe discovered that some of the boys had drunk the coconut and became frustrated.
While they were driving along the road he told the complainants to lie down on coconut fronds that had been collected.
He told Complainant A to take off his pants and instructed Complainant B to rub a banana on A’s buttocks.
Complainant B did so because he was scared of Mahe.
Mahe gave his mobile phone to Complainant C to take photos of the incident.
He then told B to take off his pants and for A to rub the banana on his buttocks.
Again, A complied with the instruction because he was afraid of Mahe.
Mahe then ordered a fourth boy, Complainant D, to take his pants off and for B to rub his buttocks. The accused then took the banana and inserted it into D’s anus.
After this, he told Complainant E to take off his pants and told B to place the banana in E’s anus. Complainant B did so because he was afraid.
The complainants reported the matter to Police on September 16, 2015.
Mahe admitted that his actions amounted to sexual assaulting the boys who were all under the age of 12.
Mr Justice Cato said that at the time of the offences, the boys were in his care. He was responsible for instructing one of the boys to sexually violate the anus of another and he himself engaged in this activity with another child.
Mr Justice Cato said he considered these were serious departures, from what could be viewed by members of any community of the ordinary standards of decency and conduct expected of a school teacher caring for young boys.
He said it involved not merely an assault on the buttocks of the boys, but sexual violation of the anal areas of two of his young students.
In sentencing Mahe yesterday Mr Cato said he considered his early guilty pleas, his co-operation with police and his expression of remorse.
Mahe had no previous convictions and the offending was out of character. He was a good candidate for rehabilitation and qualified for the suspension of part of his sentence.
He was a person of good character and came from a good family with parents involved in teaching and in religion. He had done well at school in Niuafo’ou before also doing well at school in Tongatapu and working for a bank before embarking on teaching.
Mr Justice Cato said Mahe’s guilty plea saved the boys any further humiliation. He had expressed contrition for his offending and had apologised for his behavior.
Mahe was represented in court by legal counsel Siosifa Tuʻutafaiva while Moa represented the Crown.
The main points
- A Tongan teacher has been sentenced to two years and two months for sexually assaulting five boys.
- Tevita Po’ese Mahe, 24, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of Tonga to five counts of indecent assault on a male child under 12 years of age contrary to section 125 of the Criminal Offences Act for which the maximum sentence is 7 years imprisonment.
- Mahe was sentenced to one year and 10 months on two counts of sexual assault and four months’ imprisonment on three counts of indecency.
- The sentences are to be served concurrently.
