Judge: Rapist, killer preyed on defenceless victims
Mere Ailevu, died. Colanaudolo alleged that he was raped and assaulted by Police and forced to give a statement.
But Justice Temo said the Police officers were credible and commended the work of DC 3630 for his interview.
He said the style of the interviewing officer should be the model interview for Police officers in future.
In addition, Justice Temo said Colanaudolu had given his statements voluntarily. He said there were no reports of injuries on his private parts and therefore there was no rape of him by any Police officer as he had alleged.
Justice Temo said Colanaudolu’s side of the story was in fact not credible and he was evasive in giving his evidence. Moreover, Colanaudolu had voluntarily confessed to the offence he committed against Mere Ailevu, Justice Temo stated. On the whole evidence, Justice Temo found no difficulty that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt. And therefore, Colanaudolu was found guilty as charged for his crimes.
In the mitigation submission before sentencing, Assistant Director of Public Prosecution Lee Burney, said Colanaudolu was a serial rapist, child murderer, a dangerous offender and a danger to the community. He said the offence of murder called for a life sentence for Colanaudolu.
He said because of the gravity of the crime, the community should be protected. Mr Burney requested that the non-parole period for the offender be for 30 years.
He said: “By your verdict, the offender is a serial rapist, child murderer and he is dangerous to the society. There is only one sentence for murder and that is life imprisonment.”
For the defence, lawyer Michael Fesaitu, in his submission, requested that the final sentence be concurrent. He left the decision for minimum non-parole period on the court.
Justice Temo while responding to the state prosecution’s request for 30 years of nonparole period, said that this was the first time such a period was requested.
He said the Supreme Court had sentenced a man who had killed five people in the Western Division to a non-parole period of 26 years.
However, this year, Justice Temo, said in the case of Binesh Prasad, who killed five people by arson in Narere, Navosai, he was given a non-parole period of 28 years to his life sentence imprisonment. Therefore, he said now the non-parole period was increasing. Colanaudolu has already spent one year and two months in custody.
He also has previous convictions which date back to 1995.