Rep rugby player sent to jail for sex attack
A representative rugby player and his team-mates taunted and whistled at a woman before he followed her to a secluded area and tried to rape her.
Mid-Canterbury player Kolinio Yabia Tamanitoakula, 25, appeared in Gisborne District Court yesterday and was jailed for three years, four months and two weeks after pleading guilty to a charge of assault with intent to commit sexual violation.
The attack on the woman happened in the Gisborne CBD about 4am on October 2 last year, the morning after Tamanitoakula’s Ashburton-based team played East Coast in Ruatoria.
Tamanitoakula and his team mates yelled and whistled at the woman as she walked through the city centre on her own. As she turned and walked towards the Fitzherbert Street Bridge, Tamanitoakula called out to her. She ignored him and kept walking.
As she crossed the bridge, he grabbed her and pushed her down some steps into Kelvin Park, where he forced her to the ground and began kissing her. Despite her protestations he forced his hand down her top then pulled down her trousers.
When Tamanitoakula was distracted by a passing motorist the woman struggled away from him and ran out in front of a car. She was extremely distressed and covered in wet grass and mud.
She told the driver someone had tried to rape her. The man dropped her in front of the Gisborne police station. As she waited outside, she saw Tamanitoakula walk down Gladstone Rd. She identified him to a member of the public, who chased him but lost him.
A short time later, a police dog handler tracked Tamanitoakula to the Portside Apartments, where his team was staying. He was found in one of the rooms. His clothing had mud and grass on it.
Tamanitoakula initially told police he was being a ‘‘nice man’’ and had walked with the woman into the park but she ran away. Later, he admitted taking her pants down but ‘‘she didn’t want it’’ so he got up and walked away. He told police he been drinking ‘‘heaps’’ on the night.
Lawyer Leighvi Maynard urged Judge Warren Cathcart to take account of Tamanitoakula’s previous good character.
He had no previous convictions, Maynard said.
Maynard acknowledged the pain Tamanitoakula caused his victim was ‘‘indefensible’’ but his behaviour had been ‘‘utterly out of character for him’’.
He was ‘‘ clearly intoxicated’’ and was extremely remorseful, Maynard said.
Tamanitoakula had been supporting his mother in Fiji and now ‘‘his promising rugby career is effectively at an end’’, he said. He would be deported back to Fiji.
Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly said the offending had had a major impact on the victim.
Judge Cathcart said it was ‘‘a very serious offence’’. He said the victim impact statement showed the incident had a ‘‘devastating effect on the victim’’ who now felt unsafe going out at night.
She felt reluctant to talk about the incident that she has to relive every time she passes the scene of the assault, Cathcart said.
He accepted Tamanitoakula had a clean record and was a valued member of his church. But while he had expressed remorse, Tamanitoakula’s pre-sentence report indicated he had little insight into his offending. ‘‘While you may be expressing remorse ... it lacks real insight for the offending,’’ Cathcart said.
A cultural report raised no factors that warranted a discount to his sentence, and any suggestion culture provided some explanation for an assault such as this was ‘‘repugnant’’.
Cathcart said there was a need to deter this sort of conduct before sentencing Tamanitoakula to a prison term of three years, four months and two weeks.
Tamanitoakula was immediately taken out of the team environment after the incident. Mid-Canterbury Rugby chief executive Ian Patterson and New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew said they were appalled and shocked by the player’s actions.