Suspended sentence for angry husband who set fire to house [1]
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 - 19:10
Sione Fakalelei Valuvalu Manu received one-year six-months suspended sentence for serious arson, when fuelled by alcohol and anger set fire to a house, which he occupied with his family in June 2018.
Lord Chief Justice O.G. Paulsen during sentencing on January 25 at the Supreme Court, said on June 6, 2018 Manu had picked up his wife from the hospital to return to their home at Fatai.
Manu was intoxicated and they got into an argument and drove the car at high speed scaring his wife, who got off the car when she was able to. She sought refuge at a home and refused his demands to back into the car.
Manu then returned to their home at Fatai where he consumed more alcohol.
The Chief Justice said clearly angered by the events of the day and intoxicated, Manu lit a match and threw it into a pile of clothes in the bedroom and then locked up the house and left to go to a nearby shop.
When he returned the house was fully ablaze. He took no action to stop the fire and left again. He said that nothing could have been done to save the house and it was completely destroyed.
No one was hurt in the fire.
The Court heard that the house and its contents were worth $5,000 pa'anga, which was owned by the wife’s family. When arrested, Manu admitted the offence and pleaded guilty when arraigned.
“I regard Mr. Manu's offending as very serious. Fuelled by alcohol and anger directed at his wife he made a decision to set fire to their house (which they did not own) in an entirely irrational, irresponsible, senseless and spiteful attempt to hurt his wife.”
He had no regard for the financial cost he was inflicting upon the owner of the house or the inconvenience he was going to cause his wife and daughter whose possessions were entirely destroy, he said.
The Chief Justice adopted a starting point of two-years and six-months imprisonment for this offence. In terms of mitigating factors, Manu was entitled to credit for his early guilty plea and had nine-months discounted from this sentence.
In addition, a further three-months was discounted to reflect his co-operation with the Police, his expressions of remorse (which he accepted was genuine) and hadmade peace with the wife's family.
This resulted in the imprisonment sentence of one-year and six-months imposed.
Rehabilitation
The Chief Justice then faced the most difficult task of deciding whether to partially or fully suspend the custodial sentence.
He said in discussion with the Prosecutor, he accepted that in this particular case the Court should be primarily concerned with assisting Manu to rehabilitate himself and that requiring him to serve a portion of the custodial sentence may not advance that object.
A significant contributing factor in all his prior offending is the consumption of alcohol and he has shown that when intoxicated he is unable to control his anger, he said.
“I think he should be given assistance to deal with these issues in the expectation that in successfully doing so he is unlikely to reoffend. However I must also recognize that this is a serious crime and there should be some punitive aspect to Mr. Manu's sentence."
He ordered that the sentence be fully suspended on conditions that Manu does commit any offences during suspension. He will carry out community service, is prohibited from consuming alcohol and illcit drug during the period of his suspension and must undergo anger management course on drugs and alcohol abuse, among others.
In Tonga, the maximum penalty for this offence is seven-years imprisonment.