A police officer in Papua New Guinea has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for raping a 19-year-old girl at gunpoint in 2005 during a police raid on the victim's home.
Justice David Cannings, while handing down his decision in Madang last week, said this was an extremely serious case, involving a shocking betrayal of trust and authority with the threatening use of a firearm.
He added that those factors make the case more serious than many others and that there had to be a strong deterrent sentence.
Philip Kila, 38, from Niruka village in the Kwikila area of Central province, is a police officer based in the Transgogol area of Madang province.
In the early hours of October 17, 2005, he was engaged in a police raid on Garaty village in the Bogia district, searching certain premises and arresting suspects.
He entered a house and found the victim, a 19-year-old woman, and threatened her with the firearm he was carrying, before raping her.
The court also pointed out that the offender was not a youthful offender and that he also broke bail conditions.
