The State v John Pesa

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Judge: Injia AJ
• Judgment Date: 12 May 1994
• Citation: [1994] PNGLR 317
• Court: National Court
• Year: 1994
• Judgement Number: N1231

National Court: Injia AJ

Judgment Delivered: 12 May 1994

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

[NATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE]

THE STATE

V

JOHN PESA

Popondetta

Injia AJ

11-12 May 1994

CRIMINAL LAW — Sentence — Guilty plea to three counts of aggravated robbery — Robberies committed in close sequence but involving different victims in three different houses — Cumulative sentence appropriate — Five years imprisonment in hard labour on each count, made cumulative — Totality principle — Each sentence reduced by two years — Prisoner to serve nine years in total.

Facts

The accused committed three counts of aggravated robbery. He pleaded guilty to all three acts of robbery.

The Court considered the appropriate sentencing tariff, whether there are "special circumstances", and whether to impose cumulative or concurrent sentences.

Held

1. Although the three offences are similar in character and were committed in the same evening in close sequence, the victims are all different. Therefore, the sentences are to be cumulative.

2. There were no special circumstances and, taking all matters into consideration and based on the principle "just total", the accused is sentenced to nine years in total.

Cases Cited

Acting Public Prosecutor v Haha [1981] PNGLR 205.

Gimble v The State [1988-89] PNGLR 271.

Public Prosecutor v Kerua & Ors [1985] PNGLR 85.

Counsel

C Sambua, for the State.

D Sakumai, for the defendant.

12 May 1994

INJIA AJ: The defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated robbery pursuant to s 386 (2) (a) (b) of the Criminal Code Ch 262.

The three offences occurred within a period of two hours at the homes of Higaturu oil palm employees in the Irigi compound.

The circumstances are as set out in the statements of various witnesses, which are contained in the court depositions. On the early evening of Friday 11 February 1994, the defendant and two of his friends covered their faces with masks and armed themselves with a shotgun, a home-made pistol, and a grass knife and went to Irigi compound. At 8.30 pm, they went to the house of Doemo Paemo. Whilst Doemo and a friend of his were sitting on the verandah talking, the three men approached them and held them up. They threatened to kill Doemo unless he gave them the pay money he received that day. Doemo gave them K10, which was the last portion of his money he had left with him from his pay of K40. After taking K10 from Doemo, the robbers entered the house and held up Doemo's wife, Aio, who was cooking food in the kitchen. While one of the men held a pistol pointed at Doemo and Aio, the man with the shotgun entered the bedroom and took the personal belongings of the family. The robbers took with them two bedsheets, twoblue jeans, two stringbags, a national radio cassette player, a pair of soccer boots, three "T" shirts, and two dresses.

The three men went to the house of Leban Sagi at about 9.45 pm. Leban was inside the house trying to make fire in the kitchen when the three masked men entered the house and held him up. The man with the shotgun ordered him to go outside to the verandah, which he did. There the three men threatened to kill him unless he gave them his pay money. So he went to his bedroom and took out his pay money of K40 and gave it to them.

The robbers proceeded to the house of Maguru Nape at about 10.25 pm. Maguru was inside the house while his wife, Lily, was sitting on the verandah with some relatives. The three masked men approached Lily and her friends and held them up. Lilly shouted, "Rascals, rascals." Leban rushed out to see what was happening. One of the masked men, whom Leban identified later as John Pesa, the defendant, pointed a gun at him and asked him where he had put his pay money. Maguru got scared and took out the K40, which he hid under a table inside the house, and gave the money to them. The robbers then told them to go inside the house, which they did. The three men then locked the door from the outside and left.

The next day, Saturday, 12 February 1994, John Pesa returned to Maguru's house and gave back K20, explaining, in Maguru's words, that he "thought the house belonged to another person, he and his friends held them up."

The defendant admitted participating in the three robberies with his two friends. His admissions are contained in the record of interview, in his confessional statement, and in his statement on allocutus. However, he said that he merely stood on guard outside the three houses whilst the other two went inside and held up the victims. He also said he was not masked, he was not armed with any of the weapons, and he did not receive any of the money taken in the first and second robberies. As for the third robbery, he recovered K20, which he returned the next day. As the State has not called evidence to dispute these claims, I must accept the defendant's version.

The defendant is aged about 18 years old. He voluntarily left school in Grade 4 in 1987 because his father died and he had to attend to his old mother, his father's 15 acres of oil palm block, and a small trade store. He says he earned about K120 per week from sale of oil palm and about K80 — K100 per week from the small trade store. He has only one brother, who lives in Port Moresby. He says these three offences are his first offences.

It appears to me that he comes from a relatively good family background. He also appears to be an economically independent person. For instance, he...