Siosateki Uikelotu Tu’itufu (19) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of ‘Ailine Finau (18) whom he is accused to have assaulted repeatedly with a machete on February 13, 2018. The murder trial started at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa today.

However, Tu’itufu pleaded guilty to an alternative count of manslaughter.

The Crown represented by the Acting Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions ‘Aminiasi Kefu was not satisfied and is proceeding with the murder trial, before Hon. Mr Justice Cato and a jury.

It is alleged that the murder occurred at around 6:00pm at Fangaloto, on a dirt road, which is a side road coming off Vuna Road. This was the day after Tropical Cyclone Gita hit the island.

The Prosecutor said the accused and deceased had been in a de-facto relationship since July 2017 and were living in Fangaloto, at the accused's home. 

In a summary of facts, the Crown alleged that the accused and the deceased had an argument, and the deceased left the accused’s home. 
On the evening of the murder, she was swimming in the swimming pool at Popua with some friends.

The accused went to the swimming pool and saw her. 
He then got a machete from another boy (who would be a Crown witness) at the swimming pool.

The accused then approached the deceased and talked with her and they left the swimming pool and walked to a bush area where the murder occurred. When they were in the bush area, it is alleged that they got to an argument, and the accused used the machete to repeatedly assault her.

The assault was to the head and neck areas and also to her arms.

The Prosecutor said after the assault the accused saw that the deceased was still breathing but walked off and left her on the ground. The accused returned to his home with the machete.

Meanwhile, the boy who owned the machete had told Police that he had gone to this bush area to get his machete back from the accused.

He said that he stood from the side road and heard the accused arguing with the deceased and heard him beating her. He ran back to his friends at the swimming pool and told them what happened and they ran back to the bush area. Two of the boys went into the bush area and returned to say that she was injured and had died. The accused was later arrested and charged with her murder.

Intent

The Crown intends to call eight witnesses, including a pathologist who examined the deceased and found fatal injures to her head and neck, with defensive injuries on her arms and hands.

The Prosecutor said the pathologist had concluded that the severe fatal injuries to deceased's head and neck had fractured her skull, caused by a sharp object. This caused excessive blood loss, which led to her death.

In addition, he said that the accused had told Police that he was angry with the deceased because she was eight-months pregnant and that she had lost the child and left the baby in the bush area. When they went there to search for the baby, it was not there. The deceased then allegedly told the accused that an animal may have taken their baby. 
The accused said that this made him so angry with the deceased that he used the machete to assault her. The accused said that he had lost his self-control because of the extreme provocation from the deceased that the child may have been taken by an animal. 


The Prosecutor submitted that the accused's statements were false and made up.

The accused did not lose his self-control because the deceased never said this because the medical examination confirmed that the 
deceased was never pregnant recently before her death or at the time of her death, he said.

The murder trial will run for the rest of the week.

The accused is represented by Sifa Tu’utafaiva.