Man being investigated for wife’s death denied bail
Richard Harry was remanded on the 27th of December, 2021 after he was charged with intentional homicide, in which his wife was the victim. He applied for bail, stating that it was unfair that he had to spend 52 days in custody waiting for the police to finish their investigation into his wife’s death, given his Constitutional rights to a fair hearing, within a reasonable time, and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
His father, Isaac Avock, had said in his sworn testament that he would let his son reside with him at his home and that he would supervise Harry.
However, given how serious the case is, the fact that the police investigation is still not complete and the fact that Harry would be moving back with his father to the areas in which him and his wife usually resided , and where the alleged offending occurred and members of the community and family may have seen. The risk of tampering with witnesses was high
Hence, the judge assessed that the risk of interference with Prosecution witnesses was too high and therefore declined the application for bail. A new application for bail would only be allowed if there was a change in the circumstances.
Father violated Daughter
Bill Garoleo pleaded guilty to 1 charge of incest and 2 charges of indecency without consent.
The victim is 17 years of age. The offending happened when her brothers had left the house to hunt. She went to looked for crabs with Garoleo and then returned home.
As she was about to shower, Garoleo told her not to, she tried to run but he grabbed her hair and forcefully removed her outer clothes leaving her in her bra and panties. He forced her outside to the shower, rubbed soap on her body and touched her indecently, grabbed her by her neck, shoved her onto the grass, removed her bra and then indecently assaulted her multiple times.
The next day, she told her mother about the sexual assault.
The court adopted the global sentence starting point of 6 years. For Garoleo’s guilty early guilty plea, this sentence was reduced by 33% and because he did a custom reconciliation a further reduction of 3 months was made.
The end sentences imposed concurrently are: 3 years and 9 months’ for the incest charge and 2 years and 6 months for the 2 charges of indecency without consent.
Forger withdrew VT470,000
He had forged a withdrawal slip using his brother’s signature then presented it to BSP and withdrew VT470,000 from a company account. This transaction was unauthorized and so it was discovered.
He then reimbursed it with an extra amount of VT65,000.
The court looked at the case of Gamma v Public prosecutor as precedent and set the starting point of his sentence at 18 months. Considering his early guilty plea and personal factors such as his previous good character and remorse, 4 months is deducted from the starting point of the sentence.
The court sentenced him to 6 months for forgery and 6 months for obtaining property by deceit to run concurrently and both were suspended for a period of 18 months.
15-year-old guilty of violating 6-year-old
15-year-old Jack Kenneth pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 13.
In July of 2021, the victim was with other children looking for Nangai nut, Kenneth called them to follow him to a nangai tree. He then asked her to follow him to cut a piece of bamboo. When away from the others he took of her pants and pushed his finger into her, causing her to cry out in pain and then told her to open her mouth. He pushed his penis into her mouth until he ejaculated.
She told her mother.
The start pointing for the sentence was 7 years’ imprisonment. Considering Kenneth’s early guilty pleas and personal factors, the sentence was reduced by 18 months.
The end sentence imposed is 3 years and 2 months’ imprisonment. The sentence was suspended for 2 years because of Kenneth’s lack of previous convictions, his prompt plea, his age and immaturity.
Disclaimer: All court documents have been sourced and summarized from PACLII website. All this information is public information and randomly chosen to feature in the Daily Post Every Friday. Due to the lockdown, the feature date will be on Saturdays until further notice.
SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST
