Ropati ‘Dom’ Finau: Rapist was Samoan Methodist Church Sunday school teacher
A violent sex offender and rugby player - whose attack on a teenage girl only stopped because it was interrupted by her “terrifying” cat - can be revealed as a devout Christian who taught children at Sunday school.
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Violent sex offender Ropati Dominic Finau - whose attack on a teenage girl only stopped because it was interrupted by her “terrifying” cat - is a devout Christian who taught children at methodist Sunday school before being jailed, a court has heard.
Finau, 26, of Queanbeyan, was earlier this year found guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman in her flat after feigning sickness in a taxi and telling her he needed to come inside for a glass of water.
The ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday heard Finau, an amateur rugby union player with the Queanbeyan Whites, was a devout methodist and a regular Sunday school teacher at the Samoan Methodist Church.
Finau’s barrister, Margaret Jones, produced a hefty bundle of written character references vouching for her client as a devoted family man and respected member of the Canberra and Queanbeyan Pacific Islander community.
Ms Jones said: “The evidence was that the cat jumped on Mr Finau and the conduct ceased at that point”.
Finau’s sister-in-law said he was “respectful and thoughtful to everyone”.
She said “numerous friends” who had slept with Finau “hold (him) in high regard”.
The victim, who cannot be identified, said in a statement read aloud by prosecutor Patrick Dixon, the ordeal made her feel like “my body was a toy and it was there for anyone to take”.
She said she came to feel “weak, useless and unloved”.
“I felt like nothing and I allowed myself to become nothing,” she said.
Mr Dixon said the attack was violent and premeditated, and none of the people vouching for Finau’s character could give evidence about “what happens behind closed doors when he family isn’t there, his friends aren’t there, and the members of the Samoan Methodist Church aren’t there”.
Chief Justice Murrell said Finau’s victim had a right to feel safe in her own home, and his attack came despite her repeatedly telling him to stop what he was doing.
She sentenced him to two years and six months jail, to be suspended after nine months served.
He will be released in March 2021.