Man gets 20 years in jail for raping 9-year-old

The court yesterday sentenced to 20 years imprisonment a fisherman from Carcar town after he was found guilty of raping a nine-year-old girl in 2004 then giving the victim P5 with a warning not to tell anybody about the incident.

Aside from imprisonment, Raul Sato was also ordered by Regional Trial Court judge Raphael Yrastorza to pay the victim P165,000 in civil damages.

Sato tried to convince the court that it was impossible for him to commit the rape because he was fishing out in the sea in the afternoon of September 10, 2004 when the victim claimed she was raped.

He presented his friend, Arsenio Baraquia, to support his claim, but the court rejected his denial and described it only as a "mere alibi."

The victim, a grade II pupil of an elementary school in barangay Bolinawan, Carcar, testified before the court that she met the accused when she and a classmate went to sitio Tugas to visit a friend.

According to the victim, she and her classmate named April were brought by the accused to an abandoned hut in the middle of a field. The accused successfully persuaded the children to undress infront of him when he promised to pay them.

Sato then raped the victim, while her classmate watched. After the incident, the accused gave P5 to each of the children.

Although the prosecution failed to present in court the child who was together with the victim during the rape, Yrastorza still gave more credence to the girl's testimonies than the denial of the accused.

"We observed that complainant could not help but cry during her direct and cross examination. The crying of the victim during her testimony is evidence of the credibility of the rape charge with the verity born out of human nature and experience," the court ruled. - Rene U. Borromeo