BY ROMINAH FAKA

The case of a 43-year-old man charged with sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 15, a male child aged seven years old, was mentioned at the Magistrate Court yesterday.

The accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, is on police bail and appeared in court yesterday.

Yesterday was the case’s second mention where prosecution informed court that the accused is yet to confirm his legal representation.

However, a defence counsel present in court said he was the legal representative allocated from Public Solicitors for the accused.

Defence said it is yet to receive disclosures from prosecution.

Prosecution said it needed time to compile its case, since it had just received outstanding documents on Tuesday this week.

Court adjourned the case for May 15, where the suspect is expected to take his plea.

Prosecution alleged that the suspect on an unknown date between August 1 and December 31, 2020 committed the crime on the victim.

The incident reportedly took place at a house in Talise, Central Honiara.

The victim’s mother was reportedly doing the laundry outside the house, when the accused approached the boy and told him to follow him into the bedroom.

Once inside the room, the accused allegedly instructed the child to take his clothes off.

The accused then committed the offence on the boy.

Prosecution adds that while the accused was performing the act on the boy, the accused had a knife with which he used to threaten the boy not to make a sound, otherwise he would cut the boy’s neck.

Following the incident, the boy reportedly experienced problems which include soiling himself unexpectedly and bleeding.

Later, the boy finally told his mother what the accused had done to him.

The matter was reported to police on January 8 this year.

On April 3 this year the accused was formally arrested after an investigation was conducted.

Office of Director of Public Prosecution act for the crown and Bobby Harunari act for the accused.

BY ROMINAH FAKA

The sentence against a former Bank South Pacific teller who had admitted to stealing is expected to be delivered on May 29.

Tessa Solenone Rore pleaded guilty in the previous hearing to two counts of larceny by servant and one count of forgery of certain documents with intention to defraud.

Yesterday prosecution and defence gave their mitigation statements to the court.

Crown highlighted to the court the Victim Impact Statement (VIS) from the BSP where they suffered loss as there was no recovery of the money the accused had stolen.

Defence emphasised the early guilty plea by Ms Rore which saved court’s time and resources.

Defence also highlighted Rore’s remorse for her action, adding that she had written an apology letter to the bank manager on August 10, 2020, two days after she was suspended.

The delay in the case proceeding was also touched on by defence as a mitigation factor for court to take note of.

Defence counsel also sought court for her to file a sworn statement for her client and served it to prosecution before close of business yesterday.

Court adjourned to May 29 for sentence.

Bail was extended for Rore.

The allegation said Rore was employed as a Money Gram Teller at the Bank of South Pacific Limited (BSP), Central Honiara branch, since April 16, 2015.

The allegations against the accused arose when BSP customers made an enquiry to the bank about suspicious withdrawals and deposits in or from their personal bank accounts in 2020.

The accused was removed from the till and the BSP Operational Risk Unit conducted an internal assessment.

It was discovered that the shortage amount from the till was around $422,737.40.

The accused took out money from the till or drawer, which resulted in cash shortages and she would do withdrawals from customer’s accounts to balance the till at the end of each business day.

Prosecution further states, on the next business day, she would deposit the money back to the customer’s account from the till.

The total amount the accused stole was more than $500,000.

It has been discovered that the accused had done these fraudulent transactions on 40 customers’ account since April, 2020.

In the month of August 2020, the accused was officially terminated from her employment.

Jonathan Auga of DPP Office act for the State and Emy Rusi of PSO act for the Accused.

BY ROMINAH FAKA

The case against four men accused of attacking a man has been tentatively set for October 7-18.

This tentative date will be confirmed tomorrow in court.

Luise Meke, Daniel Rofeta, Warren Basil and Daniel Fugui are jointly charged with one count of grievous bodily harm.

The matter was heard in court yesterday where prosecution held a verbal pre-trial conference.

Prosecution told court it will be calling 11 witnesses, with their statements to be tendered to the court as exhibits.

Defence said its four witnesses will be the four accused persons.

Defence counsel Vicent Nomae who represents accused Mr Rofeta informed court he would reallocate the file to another counsel for the trial.

Nomae also informed court to cancel the warrant of arrest issued for his client in the previous hearing.

Court adjourned for tomorrow Thursday, May 9, for counsels to confirm to the court their position regarding the tentative trial date set yesterday in court.  

All the four suspects pleaded not guilty to the charge.

It was alleged around 1 and 2am in the morning of August 16, 2023 at the Town Council Depot area, the complainant was waiting at the front gate of the Holy Cross transit in front of his girlfriend’s residence.

It was alleged the complainant honked for the security guard to open the gate for him and while waiting saw the four accused running towards him from the opposite side of the road.

The victim got suspicious that this group might harm him and he quickly drove away to escape from them.

After 30 minutes the complainant returned to the same location and while waiting for the security to open the gate, smoked a cigarette.

All of the sudden the group attacked the complainant from behind.

They used a hard object to strike the complainant’s right hand, causing him to fall onto the road unconsciously.

Luckily, one of the security officers at the Honiara City Council (HCC) workshop witnessed the attack and intervened and prevented the boys from further harming the complainant.

Later the complainant was assisted to his girlfriend’s residence.

That same night the complainant was not feeling well and went to the National Referral Hospital.

He was informed that the right side of his skull was cracked and there was internal bleeding.

The injuries sustained by the complainant was severe, he was referred to Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland, Australia for further medical attention.

Vernon Taupongi acts for the crown and Delilah Kukura represent Luise Meke, Daniel Onorio represent Warren Basil, Jennifer Happilyn represent Daniel Fugui and Vincent Nomae for Daniel Rofeta.