Call to appeal Samuel Gaulai Misi’s seven-year jail sentence for rape

The sick child sex offender lured a nine-year-old girl from a park and subjected her to unthinkable sex acts. The Attorney-General tried to argue the man’s sentence was “inadequate” and “unjust”.

Samuel Gaulai Misi.

A court has dismissed an appeal to increase a convicted rapist’s seven-year jail sentence after he lured a young girl from her friends so he could commit “heinous” sex acts.

Samuel Gaulai Misi pleaded guilty in Mackay District Court to taking a child for immoral purposes, rape, and two counts of indecent treatment of a child.

He was ordered on November 2021 to serve seven years in jail and a serious violent offence declaration was made, meaning he must serve at least 80 per cent of the sentence.

The court heard the nine-year-old victim was playing hide and seek in a Cairns caravan park with her friends on the evening of April 6, 2020 while Misi, 29, rode his bicycle around the grounds and watched her.

He waited until the young girl was alone then called out to her: “Do you want some money?”

The child followed him at his instruction to a closed-off area behind a building.

The sentencing court heard Misi gave her several coins before he pulled her to a remote corner and digitally raped her.

“(The girl) was shaking and crying,” the court heard at the time.

He performed oral sex on her until she pulled her pants up. Misi then rode away on his bicycle and the child returned to her friends.

The “scared little girl”, as Judge Julie Dick described Misi’s victim, told her mother what happened later that night and a complaint was made to police.

The Court of Appeal judgment was delivered in Brisbane on Friday, March 10.

Officers found Misi and arrested him about a week after the incident. He did not participate in an interview.

Ms Dick remarked during sentencing that Misi “was a danger to children”.

The Attorney-General of Queensland appealed against the seven-year sentence on the grounds it was “manifestly inadequate”, unjust, and unreasonable.

The Court of Appeal heard Misi had a criminal history with “many” entries including two sexual offences against children in 2013.

The first sexual offence he committed was attempted indecent treatment of a child under 16 and involved him going into the bedroom of a 13-year-old girl while she was sleeping, putting his hand on her hip, and trying to get her to roll over — but she did not do so.

He “begged” her to change her mind before eventually leaving.

Misi committed a second offence of indecent treatment of a child when he stood by the bed of a six-year-old girl, pulled down her pants, and placed his penis in the area of her bottom.

He was sentenced to 18 months jail for the indecent treatment offence, which was suspended after serving 226 days.

The remainder of the sentence hung over his head for 18 months while he completed probation for the attempted indecent treatment offence.

The appeal court last week considered other sentences imposed in similar cases and ultimately decided the Attorney-General had failed to show Misi’s seven-year sentence “was so markedly different” to conclude there must have been a “misapplication of principle”.

The appeal was dismissed.

Originally published as Call to appeal Samuel Gaulai Misi’s seven-year jail sentence for rape