The State v Drikore Yuana Peter

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Judge: Kirriwom J
• Judgment Date: 15 June 2000
• Citation: [2000] PNGLR 307
• Court: National Court
• Year: 2000
• Judgement Number: N1973

National Court: Kirriwom J

Judgment Delivered: 15 June 2000

N1973

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

(In the National Court of Justice)

CR No. 414 of 2000

THE STATE

Against

DRIKORE YUANA PETER

Prisoner

KUNDIAWA: KIRRIWOM, J

2000: 13th & 15th June

Criminal Law – Sentence – Murder – Domestic related – Second wife murders new wife of common husband – Provocation by husband – Deceased stabbed twice on neck and chest while fast asleep with kitchen knife – Cold blooded and calculated murder – Observations on Polygamy as a threat to marital survival in Christian communities and an agent for moral decay in civilised world.

Facts

The prisoner, wife number two, was unhappy with the husband who took in another wife into the marriage she considered already overcrowded and who was also unhappy with the husband for comparing her with the third wife who was said to be educated took the law into her own hands and killed the third wife with a kitchen knife by stabbing her as she lay asleep in bed two times. The deceased died due to massive loss of blood. She was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in hard labour.

Full facts are in the judgment.

Cases cited:

1. The State v Maria Pelta Pung (Yamai) [1995] PNGLR 173

2. The State v Margaret John (No.2) [1996] PNGLR 298

3. The State v Maria Er (Cr.744 of 1998) Unreported NC Judgment N1749

Counsel:

Mr F. Kuvi for the State

Mr M. Apie’e for the Prisoner

15th June 2000

SENTENCE

KIRRIWOM, J: The prisoner is in her early 20s and a co-wife to a common husband in a polygamous marriage to which the deceased was the husband’s latest addition to his marriage. The prisoner is wife number two and the deceased was wife number three.

The prisoner claims to have been married to one Peter Kewa, whom I refer to as the ‘common husband’ for nearly five years and from which marriage she had a child who is now a little over a year old. She claimed that after the child was born the husband left her and the first wife and went away. He ignored his responsibility towards them. They learnt that he had taken on board a third wife.

On 19th December 1999 the prisoner and the first wife were in the latter’s house when they heard their common husband talking outside the house. They both went towards his direction. On the way she learnt that the husband had come home with the third wife and she had gone into a men’s haus or hausman. The prisoner and first wife proceeded with their husband into the latter’s house. Once inside the prisoner asked the husband about the third wife. The prisoner says that upon being asked, the husband told her to shut up and added that he married an educated woman and she was uneducated. Saying this he hit her. She was hurt for being denigrated as being of inferior class to an educated woman. She believed no doubt that the third wife would be attracting more attention from the common husband than her. This rising emotion within her was further compounded by the assault that added to her pain. She left for her own house. In the middle of the night when everyone was asleep, arming herself with a kitchen knife she proceeded to the hausman in search of her rival, the third wife. Her entry into the house was unnoticed by anyone including those who were asleep inside. After identifying her prey amongst the other familiar faces of sleeping bodies, she executed her anger by stabbing the sleeping figure on the back of her neck. The deceased screamed and the prisoner plunged the knife...