The State v Gore Yogal (2001) N2080

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Citation: (2001) N2080
• Date: 16 March 2001
• Court: National Court
• Year: 2001

Full Title: The State v Gore Yogal (2001) N2080

National Court: Kandakasi J

Judgment Delivered: 16 March 2001

1 CRIMINAL LAW—Practice and Procedure—Prisoner having no formal or fixed source of income—Inappropriate to order compensation—Criminal Law (Compensation) Act 1991—Defence not asking for non–custodial sentence—No need to call for and consider a presentencing report.

2 CRIMINAL LAW—Sentence—Armed robbery with threats of violence—Guilty plea—first time adult offender—7 years imprisonment less time already spent in custody—Criminal Code (Ch262) s386 and s19.

3 Public Prosecutor v Don Hale (1998) SC564, Tau Jim Anis v The State (2000) SC642 and Gimble v The State (1988–89] PNGLR 271 referred to

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Kandakasi J: The accused pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery under s386(1), (2)(a) and (b) of the Criminal Code (Ch262) (hereinafter "the Code").

The allegation or charge against the accused was that on the 4 October 2000 between 5 and 5.30 pm at the PNG Motors here in West Goroka, employees of that company were just about to leave their place of work on a company vehicle when the accused and another person armed with a gun appeared and threatened the employees and stole from them a sum of K875.35 in cash and three cheques valued at K4,282.11 which were in the vehicle, the property of PNG Motors. After stealing the money, the accused and his accomplice escaped. The accused was subsequently apprehended and charged following police investigations.

After arraigning the accused, I entered a provisional plea of guilty and then admitted into evidence without any objection from the defence counsel, the depositions together with the antecedent report. After reading the depositions, I was satisfied that, there was sufficient material to support the guilty plea. I therefore proceeded to confirm the guilty plea...