The State v Albina Sinowi (2001) N2175

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Judge: Kandakasi J
• Judgment Date: 13 December 2001
• Citation: (2001) N2175
• Court: National Court
• Year: 2001
• Judgement Number: N2175

Full Title: The State v Albina Sinowi (2001) N2175

National Court: Kandakasi J

Judgment Delivered: 13 December 2001

N2175

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

[IN THE NATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE]

CR NO. 45 of 2002

THE STATE

-V-

ALBINA SINOWI

WEWAK: KANDAKASI, J.

2001: 12th and 13th December

CRIMINAL LAW — Sentence — Unlawful wounding causing bodily harm to co-wife — Victim leaving her children with prisoner on more than one occasion each time getting angry and run away with money meant for the family — Prisoner forced to feed children and family from her own efforts — Victim hit once with iron rode — Fracture to left ulna — Guilty plea — First time offender — Customary Compensation of K1000.00 paid to victim — Since commission of offence victim and prisoner living together in one house without any difficulty — Expression of genuine remorse — 6 months suspended sentence imposed — Criminal Code ss. 340 & 19.

Cases cited:

The State v. Ngetto Rex Rongo (unreported judgement delivered 20/12/00) N2035

The State v. Maria Er N 1749

Counsel

M. Ruarri for the State

G. Korei for the Accused

DECISION ON SENTENCE

13th December, 2001

KANDAKASI J: You pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of unlawful assault of one Helen Sinowi, who is your co-wife (that is you and the victim are married to the same husband, Mr. Sinowi) contrary to s. 340 of the Criminal Code.

The Facts

The offence was committed on the 10th of June 2001. It took place at Koiruo Camp, Kaindi, which is not far from here. You were angered by Helen Sinowi who is your husband's second wife when she left the third time with 5 of her children including an a baby for you to take care of following an argument with the husband. On two occasions before, she did the same after she had an argument with the husband. On each occasion she left no food for the children. She simply did not care and left the children. You therefore took on the responsibility of look for food and feed the family and nurse the small baby.

The husband did nothing to stop Helen Sinowi from her conduct. You therefore, decided to teach her a lesson on the third occasion. So when she came home from her village early in the morning, you start a fight with her. In the course of the fight, you picked up a piece of iron that was there and hit Helen Sinowi on her left forearm. That resulted in a fracture of her left ulna. Medical evidence confirms the broken arm and its treatment.

Helen Sinowi reported the assault on her to the police sometime later. On the basis of her report, you were arrested. Subsequently, you were released on bail and have since been living together with Helen Sinowi in the same house with the same husband. You have paid for the assault on her by a payment of K1, 000.00 in compensation.

The Law

The offence of unlawful assault and its penalty is prescribed by section 340 of the Criminal Code. It prescribes a maximum penalty of 3 years imprisonment subject to section 19 of the Criminal Code. The section reads:

"340. Assaults occasioning bodily harm.

(1) A person who unlawfully assaults another and by doing so does him bodily harm is guilty of a misdemeanour.

Penalty: Imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years.

(2) [Repealed.]"

My limited research for cases on this section has not been able to produce a case. This does not mean that the Courts have not come to deal with it in the past. It seems however that, a Court is yet to lay down some guidelines for these kinds of offences. I will attempt to do that here. But before I do that, I accept Mr. Korei's argument that, the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment should be reserved for the worse kind of unlawful assault. There are numerous authorities for that. I discussed some of them in The State v. Ngetto Rex Rongo (Unreported judgement delivered on 20/12/00) N2035, at pp. 3 — 6. I need not repeat the discussion here save only to acknowledge the existence of such authorities.

As with any other offence, the offence of unlawful assault causing bodily harm has its own categories. Up on the top of the scale would be cases in which there are multiple acts of assault with serious bodily harm but falling short of grievous bodily harm cases. Next to that would be cases in which there is say, a single act of assault resulting in a closer to serious bodily harm to the victim. Following this category of unlawful assault resulting in bodily harm, would be cases in which there is an act of assault resulting in a very minor bodily harm.

Of course, whether an offender should be given the maximum prescribed sentence would also depend on the particular facts of the case and whether or not the offender has any prior convictions. If the offender has a prior convict and he or she is found guilty after a trial and his or her case falls in the worse category, that may attract an imposition of the maximum penalty of three years imprisonment. If however, the offender pleads guilty and has no prior convictions, a lower sentence may be...