BY MELVILLE TITIULU
The Magistrate Court on Tuesday, March 10, sentenced a 53-year-old man to 4 months’ imprisonment for persistently breaching a court protection order.
The defendant, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims, pleaded guilty to four counts of breach of a protection order, contrary to section 59 (1) of the Family Protection Act (FPA).
The court also ordered the defendant to pay a total penalty fine of $2,000 payable by 4:30 pm today (Monday, March 16).
Failure to pay by 4:30 pm today, the defendant further risks being imprisoned for 3 months in addition to the current 4 months custodial sentence imposed last week, to be served at the correctional facility at Rove in Honiara.
The court considered that the repetition of the same offence for at least four times, together with the breach of the court order and the use of a weapon on one of the occasions which almost injured his own daughter, are in itself, an aggravating feature of the offence.
Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison at the sentence ruling said both custodial sentence and penalty fine are appropriate for this case.
The principal magistrate said that the outcome of this case would deter the defendant from committing any form of domestic violence or breaching of any court order in the future.
The complainant is a 52-year-old female.
Both the complainant and the defendant were legally married and have four children.
In 2019, the complainant and the defendant separated, and the defendant married the complainant’s niece.
According to the ruling, an interim protection order was issued in 2023.
Subsequent to that, a final protection order was issued in 2024 against the defendant, with conditions to be complied with.
The final Protection order has conditions which prohibited the defendant from entering their family property residence at Henderson.
It also directed the defendant to allow the complainant and her children to ‘recover, have access or make use of any specified personal property’.
The defendant made an application in 2025 to revoke the conditions of the protection order.
However, the court refused the revocation application and instead ordered the complainant and the four children to reside at their matrimonial property until the issue of ownership is determined.
The ruling also noted that the defendant’s right of appeal applies.
Ms Barret Jillian Raoga from the Police Prosecutions Department represents the crown and Mr Jeremy Saeni, Senior Legal Officer, Public Solicitors’ Office, represents the defendant.
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