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National Court of Papua New Guinea |
Unreported National Court Decisions
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
[NATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE]
CR 92 OF 1999
THE STATE
-V-
NATHAN KOWAHIN
Wewak
Sawong J
2 March 1999
5 March 1999
CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Manslaughter - Plea of Guilty - Spleen death - Husband kills wife - Custodial Sentence - 5 years IHL.
Counsel
Mr. Ruarri for the State.
Mr. Tusais for the Accused.
5 March 1999.
SAWONG J: You pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing your late wife. The circumstances of this tragic incident is as follows.
You and the deceased had been married for many years. Out of your marriage you have two children, who are aged 15 and 12 years old. Up until the time you committed the offence, you were successfully raising a small trade store in your village. It seems that up to the time of incident you had good normal village life.
Unfortunately this was tragically shattered on the afternoon of 11 September 1998. On that afternoon you and your wife had an argument because she suspected you of having affairs with other women in Wewak. During the course of the argument you fought and in the course of it, you hit your wife two times on the side of her stomach with your fists. This rendered her to unconsciousness and she was in great pain. When you realised what had happened, you tried to revive her by pouring cold water over her body. You were unsuccessful and so you locked her inside your house and went out looking for help. Some nearby neighbours heard her cry and they opened the door and got into the house. However, they were too late as she had died. The medical report shows that her spleen had been ruptured. The report doesn’t say if she had an enlarged spleen or not nor does it say if she had a healthy spleen. The cause of death was internal bleeding as a result of the ruptured spleen.
THE PRISONER
You are a widower, having unlawfully killing your wife. At the time of offence you were aged 38 years old. at time you were living inng in the village doing odd jobs as a carpenter and also running a small trade store in your village. ave two children who are 15 and 12 years old respectively. You are a first offender.
When I administered the allocatus you told this Court of how the incident began and ended. You said sorry for what you did. You told the court that since you were married, you had never argued up until that fateful day. You also told me that you have paid compensation to her relatives. The payment of compensation is in principle a good practice, because this will and in many case it does, bring immediate resolution to a potentially dangerous situation. But the payment of compensation cannot be substituted as punishment for what the law has prescribed.
I take into your favour the fact that you have pleaded guilty. Your plea of guilty is consistent with your co-operation with the police and where you readily made admissions. You have expressed genuine grief and remorse for tragically taking the life of your wife and the mother of your two children. In these circumstances, I consider you plea of guilty and your expression of remorseness to be a genuine one.
You are a first offender. This indicates to me that you were a law abiding citizen up until you committed this crime.
The taking of another person’s life is always a serious crime. It is tragic in a situation like your case. Now you will have to live with the shame and ridicule from your relatives and your late wife’s relatives. You personally will, I am sure suffer for the rest of your life because you killed your wife in tragic and violent manner.
Whilst I accept all the mitigating factors in your favour, I must however bear in mind those aggravating factors as well to arrive at a balanced sentence.
In your case I note that you assaulted your wife two times, on the side of her stomach. These punches ruptured her spleen and she bled internally, which eventually led to her death. Her death arose directly from the assaults that were committed on her. In other words the assaults were repeated. Thus in the circumstance of your case I consider that an immediate custodial sentence is appropriate.
In the circumstance of your case, you are sentenced to 5 years IHL. However I deduct pre trial custody period of approximately 6 months, being a balance of 4½ years IHL.
Lawyer for the State: Public Prosecutor
Lawyer for the Accused: Public Solicitor
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URL: http://www.paclii.org/pg/cases/PGNC/1999/11.html