Winugini Urugitaru v The Queen [1974] PNGLR 283

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Court: Supreme Court
• Citation: [1974] PNGLR 283
• Date: 29 November 1974
• Year: 1974

Full Title: Winugini Urugitaru v The Queen [1974] PNGLR 283

Full Court: Frost ACJ, Raine J, Denton AJ

Judgment Delivered: 29 November 1974

1 Criminal law—murder, wilful; Sentence—principles

2 Sentence reduced to 12 years; great disparity with sentences of co–defendants; sense of grievance

CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE—Sentence—Joint offenders—Discrimination between persons convicted of same crime—Matters for consideration—Public interest—Antecedents—When differentiation justified—Sense of injustice ground for adjustment of sentences.

CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE—Appeal against sentence—General grounds for interference—Joint offenders—Sense of injustice.

The applicant for leave to appeal and two others were tried together and convicted on a murder charge, the murder having been committed in the process of submitting the deceased and a woman to traditional punishment for what was regarded as a grave violation of clan custom. The applicant was sentenced to life imprisonment, the trial judge taking into account a prior conviction for wilful murder; each of the other co–accused were sentenced to six years' imprisonment, the trial judge taking into account sentences ranging from five to seven years' imprisonment given at a previous trial of five others for the same offence.

Held:

(1) In sentencing co–accused jointly indicted the Court is justified in differentiating if, in considering the public interest, it has regard to the differences in the characters and antecedents of the convicted men and discriminates between them because of these differences, (R v Ball (1951), 35 Cr App R 164 at 164 applied) and may also have regard to factors connected with the actual commission of the crime.

(2) The fact that one of several co–accused jointly indicted has received too short a sentence is not a ground to lead a court necessarily to...