A Supreme Court jury trial was held against 46-year-old Sisituutuumata Fulivai. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to alleged sexual assault and may be distressing to some readers.
A jury has found a Canberra man guilty of a horrifying incident in which he held a naked woman captive at his home for two days while beating, raping and choking her unconscious.
In doing so, the jurors completely rejected Sisituutuumata Fulivai’s far-fetched claims that he had been the victim of a home invasion, acted in self-defence against the woman and refused to let her leave his home because it was cold outside.
The 46-year-old Tongan fought his 20 charges in his trial that began in the ACT Supreme Court and ran for over a week.
Jurors deliberated for about a day before returning to the courtroom on Monday (2 March) and announcing they had found him guilty of every single charge.
He did not visibly react to the verdicts, and Justice Belinda Baker adjourned the matter to later in March to find a date for him to be sentenced.
It had been alleged that he held a young woman captive at his home in Lyneham for two days in June 2024 while he raped and repeatedly assaulted her before she was able to fight her way out and fled, naked, onto the street, where she was found by police.
Jurors heard the woman, aged in her mid-20s, had met him through a mutual friend.
She told police she thought she was going to die in the house and asked to leave more than 100 times.
When he gave evidence, he denied ever having sex with the woman and claimed she had been “smoking drugs” that weekend before she started assaulting him.
He claimed he hit and shoved her in self-defence, agreeing he caused her bruises.
“They were in self-defence. [She] was armed and I had to try and restrain her,” he said while being questioned by his barrister, James Sabharwal, during re-examination on Thursday (26 February).
In the trial’s closing submissions, prosecutor Marina Lucero told jurors they would have to decide what happened in the house.
She said there was no dispute that the woman had only just met Fulivai before she spent most of the time from Friday to Monday at his home, but that was about the extent of the similarities between their accounts.
Ms Lucero said the woman had been “straightforward and direct in her evidence”, had an impressive capacity to recall minute details, and urged jurors to reject Fulivai’s claims.
Fulivai was found guilty of 12 counts of assault, three counts of choking, three counts of making a threat to kill, as well as single counts of sexual intercourse without consent and unlawful confinement.
He was held in custody during his trial and remains in custody.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT on 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call triple zero.
If you have been affected by sexual violence, or someone you know has, you can report it to police by attending a police station or phoning 131 444.
Hopefully multi level parking is in the plans LOL View