A 45-year-old man was convicted of stabbing another man three times with a knife during a verbal confrontation at Fatai in 2015. 

Hon. Mr Justice Niu in a verdict on April 16 at the Supreme Court, found Sinela Fifita guilty of causing serious bodily harm to the complainant, Neiafutahi Bloomfield.

The Court heard from the complainant that on January 14, 2015 he and his wife had just got back home in their vehicle with a basketball team after a game at Sopu. 

He said one of his children who remained at home came and told him that the accused had sworn at them.

The accused and the complainant both lived on the same town allotment at Fatai, which was fenced and has only one gate and driveway, which ran between two houses in which they each lived with their own families. The two houses were about 10 meters apart.

The complainant went and stood between the two houses and asked the accused who was inside his own house, why he had sworn at his children and the accused told him that he had not sworn at them. He said to the accused that the children said that he did. 

He said the accused then told him that he should not speak like that because the town allotment was not his (complainant's). The complainant said that he then turned and as he walked back to his house, his wife Haitelenisia, called out to him to look out because the accused was running up behind him with a knife. 

The complainant turned around just as the accused stabbed him with a knife on his left shoulder, then he pulled it out and stabbed him again. He fended it with his hand but the knife cut his left nostril and then the accused stabbed him again and he fended but it stabbed him on his left chest. 

They then struggled with each other and the complainant pushed him off from him and that another boy came and attacked the accused. The accused stabbed that boy on his shoulder.

The complainant did not know what happened after that because his wife was pulling him away to take him to hospital. He was admitted and kept at the Vaiola Hospital for a few days, where his wounds were stitched up.

Facts proven

Hon. Mr Justice Niu said, it was not disputed, and he found beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused did seriously cause bodily harm to the complainant.

“The use of a knife in a violent manner by stabbing the complainant three times thereby causing stab wounds on his shoulder, his nose and his chest and which bled profusely, soaking his t-shirt in blood, and wounds which required sutures to be applied to close them up, must be accepted as evidence of serious causing of bodily harm.”

He said, the prosecution had known that the accused might raise the defence of self- defence before this trial started, because the accused had stated in his statement to the police, which was taken the day after the injuries were inflicted, that he had picked up the knife which he used, after he heard the complainant repeatedly call to the persons in his house to bring him the gun. 


"I have considered the evidence of all the witnesses and that of the complainant and of the accused, and I have found that there was no call made by the complainant to the persons in his house to bring the gun to him by calling out or shouting, Bring the gun."

The judge said, this was because at first the accused maintained that he went out with the knife and that he stabbed the complainant with it repeatedly to protect himself and his family because of the calls of the complainant to bring him the gun. 

But when asked by the Crown Prosecutor, why he ran away and left his family, the accused said that he had thought that the complainant had meant to shoot only him with the gun, and not his family. 

“I therefore do not believe that the complainant would have then shouted to the people in his house to bring the gun to him, such as the accused and his partner have said that he did. I believe that the accused only made it up when he had cooled down at the police station and realised what he had done,” he said.

“In addition, there is no possibility, let alone a reasonable possibility, that the accused acted in self-defence when he attacked and repeatedly stabbed the complainant,” said Hon Mr Justice Niu.

Sinela Fifita will be sentenced on May 25.