Obese rapist to serve jail term in hospital
A morbidly obese man has been sentenced to prison for historic rape and sex abuse charges but will spend his jail term in hospital unless he loses weight.
Kaiko¯ ura man Marcus Shane Solomon appeared by audiovisual link on a hospital gurney as he was sentenced to eight years and four months’ imprisonment, in Blenheim yesterday.
Solomon, son of Whale Watch founder and Takahanga Marae upoko (leader) Bill Solomon, was found guilty of 10 charges of sexual violation, rape and kidnap in February. He continues to deny raping and sexually abusing three young girls in the Kaiko¯ ura area in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was aged between 14 and 22.
After Solomon’s conviction, his health deteriorated and he ended up at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch, ‘‘virtually immobile’’, with complications from morbid obesity. Solomon’s lawyer, Andrew McKenzie, suggested a community-based sentence, saying his health made prison a disproportionately severe sentence.
Crown prosecutor Mark O’Donoghue said Solomon should be sentenced to prison as a signal to the community such offending was unacceptable.
One of the victims, raped twice by Solomon as a teenager, told the court she still suffered social anxiety and panic attacks.
She was first raped while staying with Solomon’s family in Oaro, south of Kaiko¯ura township, the court heard.
When the adults left the house Solomon offered her beer and she got drunk, before he took her to a bedroom and raped her.
On another occasion she was drinking at the Solomon house before being taken to a party in central Kaiko¯ ura, where she fell asleep in a bedroom. Solomon woke her up shortly before dawn, took her down to the beach and raped her in a public toilet.
The other two victims were aged between 7 and 14 when Solomon sexually violated them and forced them to perform sexual acts, many times over several years.Solomon’s prison term would be served in hospital until he reached a healthy weight, as New Zealand’s prison hospitals did not have the resources to provide for his medical care, Judge Tony Zohrab said.