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Offender Database Tauloa Sala

Tauloa Sala

Alias

.

Offences

Rape and assault of a Dunedin student in November 2002

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1983

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to 7 years 6 months with a 4 year non parole period in December 2002
Released and deported April 2009

Background
NZ Herald story here
Also from the Otago Daily Times
7½-year jail term for rapist
A young man who last month raped a 21-year-old woman walking home alone has been jailed for 7 years 6 months, with a non-parole period of four years. Tauloa Sala (19), storeman, received the sentence in the Dunedin District Court yesterday. But for his guilty plea, the jail term would have been 10 years, Judge John Macdonald told him.

The woman, a student who had been celebrating the end of exams, had encountered Sala and his cousin at two bars during the evening. She had declined repeated offers from Sala to walk her home, eventually pushing him away when he tried to kiss her and telling him to leave her alone.

But, about 5am, after she walked from him and started heading for home, Sala grabbed her around the neck from behind and threw her into bushes beside a building in Cumberland St. The woman landed on the ground. Sala landed on top of her. To try to get him off her, she started to fight him, scratching his face and chest.

He headbutted her several times. She kept trying to fight him off. However, he punched her in both eyes and told her he had a knife and would kill her if she did not stop screaming and struggling.

Sala then pulled down the woman's pants and raped her. Before running off, he said he was going home and she should do the same. Spoken to by police, Sala said he had an alcohol and anger problem and just "lost it". Something had clicked in his brain. He did not know why he had done it.

He regretted his actions and could not change things, he stated. Counsel Jim Large said Sala made a full admission to the police before telephoning for legal assistance.

When Sala read the victim impact report, he was totally lost for words. He was full of shame for what he had done and its effects. "He is now fully aware of the trauma and stress he has caused the complainant, her family, and his family."

Sala started drinking when he was 15. Alcohol was the key factor in his difficulties, Mr Large said. While Crown counsel Robin Bates sought a 10-year starting point for sentence, Mr Large submitted an 8-year starting point, with a 2-year discount for Sala's early guilty plea, was appropriate.

Mr Bates' view was that the end result should be a prison term of 7 to 8 years. He also asked that the court consider imposing a non-parole period of half the length of sentence. Judge Macdonald said although the woman's physical injuries would heal, she also suffered emotional injury. "That may never heal," he told Sala. "She is angry and feels you've ruined her life; that it will never be the same again."

The judge also said the violence of the particular offence had gone beyond what was inherent in the crime of rape. There had been some insistence on Sala's part. He had followed the woman, had had plenty of time to consider what he was going to do, and he had made threats.

Sala had a short list of previous criminal offending and had received only one sentence, supervision, the judge noted. There was an assault on a female in January last year, he said. And he described as "disturbing" an offence, as a 15-year-old, of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Imposing the 4-year non-parole period, the judge said Sala would have been eligible for parole after 2 years 6 months. Something more was required.

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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