BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
DEPUTY Chief Magistrate Ricky Iomea is reiterating the caution against excessive use of alcohol.
He says it is common knowledge that excessive alcohol consumption seemed to be one of the causes of anti-social or unlawful behaviours which affects other innocent members of the community.
He made the statement when sentencing an accused yesterday at the Honiara Magistrate Court.
The accused on the case is Joseph Mate of Ravu village in the Western part of Guadalcanal. He was charged of Acts intended to cause grievous harm, contrary to section 224 (b) of the penal code.
This is the case that occurred on June 14, 2019 at WM shop at Point Cruz, Honiara.
The victim was working at that WM shop.
Prosecution said around 6 pm, while they were loading cargoes, the accused approached and grabbed a female from the back using both his hands and pressed her breasts, she shouted and tried to pull out from the accused hand but could not to do so, her colleagues saw what happened and shouted at the accused.
The accused in turn got angry and went into the shop, he then swore at them walked back to the entrance of the shop. He saw the security guard and pulled out a screw driver. He tried to stab the security with the screw driver several times but the security defend himself and knocked out the screw driver from the accused.
The shop keepers were afraid and rang the police who came and escorted the accused to Central Police Station and later was charged on July 17, 2019 with indecent act without consent, threatening abusive or insulting behaviour and acts intended to cause grievous hard.
DCM Iomea said the screw driver is a weapon and it was fortunate that the security Officer was able to defend himself avoiding any injury to him.
As submitted by the Prosecution, this is an unprovoked attack, the facts show that he was being shouted at as a result of his insulting behaviour on a female outside the shop. He got angry and went into the shop where he committed this offence.
“This kind of behaviour must be condemned and deterred with the imposition of the appropriate sentence.
“I note his guilty plea which is not an early plea, he had denied this charge initially However, an appropriate deduction will be allowed to reflect the plea of guilty,” DCM Iomea said.
Therefore, he sentences the accused to 14 months imprisonment and the sentence is to backdated to commence on when he was first remanded in custody.
