A 17-year old student has been found guilty by a Supreme Court judge for stabbing another boy in the head with a sharp object, in a school fight in Nuku'alofa, last year.

Hon Mr Justice Niu in a verdict on April 24 found the accused Tavalea Tupou guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to the complainant, Wesley Vi (18).

He will be sentenced on June 16.

In his verdict, the judge said this concerned a fight between some boys from Tonga College and some boys from Liahona High School, on a Saturday afternoon, (February 16, 2019) in Kolofo'ou.

The complainant from Tonga College was involved in the fight, and during the fight, he received the stab wound which penetrated his skull and required surgery on the same day, during which he was put to sleep and subsequently hospitalised for some two to three weeks.

During his hospitalisation a drain tube was attached to his injury to drain blood and fluid. At the end of two-weeks the drain was removed and after another two-weeks stitches, which had been sutured to close the cut to his scalp were removed.

He was advised to be careful and to keep well for two-years, to allow the hole in his cranium to close up. 


The judge said, when this trial was held last year, the complainant said he could still feel the hole in his skull.

In addition, he still feels his head throbbing when he runs or exercises, and that if he rubbed the spot on his head where the hole was, he could hear it in his ears like the rubbing of a microphone with one's finger.

Stabbing

The Court heard from the complainant's evidence in chief, that he was standing with a witness, Sione Savou Vea, and another friend, Kofe Liku, under a mango tree at Digicel Square on the north-eastern corner of Wellington Road and Taufa'ahau Road when the fight broke out on the road between Narottam store and the Chinese restaurant on Wellington Road. 

He saw Tonga College boys in the fight and he ran to where the vehicle he had come on was parked, which was on the roadside in front of the Chinese restaurant opposite Narottam. 

The complainant was wearing a pair of grey shorts, normally worn by Tonga College boys, and that he also wore a red T-shirt, and a cap on his head. 

The complainant said, there were vehicles queuing on the road and that as he ran between those vehicles, the accused was coming from the east side and they crashed into each other and when they parted from each other, he felt blood spurting from his head and flowing down his face. 

He fell down and other fighters attacked the accused and another boy led him (the complainant) away to the market from where the police took him to hospital. 

The complainant told the police that the accused was the one who had caused him his injury. 

The police then arrested the accused and asked him what he had done to the complainant, and the accused did not speak but just held up his hand above his head and moved it from the back to the front and then downwards in a stabbing manner. 

Justice Niu said the complainant also admitted that he was a member of a group of Tonga College boys, who called themselves the "Red Zone" and that they would fight with the Liahona boys. 

The complainant said he had seen the accused with other Liahona boys at the bus stop and that he and the “Red Zone” boys would chase them off. 

Considering the evidence, the judge was reasonably satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the complainant received the injury which he sustained, namely, a stabbing injury which penetrated the cap he wore, his scalp and his cranium, when he came into collision with the accused between two vehicles which were queuing on the road, as the complainant said in his evidence. 

According to the complainant, the accused was the only one he had contact with, or who had contact with him at the fight, he said.