BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
THE man convicted for one count of grievous harm has been sentenced to two and half years yesterday for assaulting another man at Rauni village, North east Guadalcanal.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Ricky Iomea in sentencing the accused said the maximum penalty for grievous harm offence is 14 years imprisonment and that reflects how serious the legislators view this type of offending.
Magistrate Iomea said having had the opportunity to consider the sentences that the courts have imposed in past cases where accused person had pleaded guilty to this same offence, he believes they serve as useful sentencing guidelines in considering the sentence to be imposed in the current case.
He also said that no two cases are the same so each case must be treated on its own unique set of facts, when deciding the appropriate sentence to be imposed.
He then told the accused that in deciding the sentence to be imposed in the case, he will be mindful of the court’s duty to continue to send a deterrent message to the Public that the kind of offending is totally unacceptable.
Therefore he imposed a sentence of three years and considering the accused’s guilty plea he then deducted six months and the accused will serve two years and six months in custody and his total sentence will be back dated to the time he was placed in custody.
This is the case against Reginald Eloga who was charged in relation to the incident occurred in April this year at Rauni village.
