Mother of 8 sold meth at home [1]
Tuesday, June 2, 2020 - 18:40
A 45-year-old mother of eight was found guilty today on two charges of possession of 0.18 grams of methamphetamine and bribery of a police officer, when she was arrested at Lapaha in 2018.
Ma’ata Pouono will be sentenced on July 28 at the Supreme Court.
She was convicted on both charges by Hon Mr Justice Niu, who was satisfied on the evidence beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused committed the offencers. This was after a trial last month.
The Court heard, the two packs of methamphetamine seized by police were found inside a diaper in a rubbish bag at the her home. Also seized was $1,366 cash from her wallet.
The accused, who was a tapa maker, did not dispute this.
For bribery, she offered to give money to the police officers to return her home rather than take her to the Central Police Station to process her arrest and charge her for the criminal offences.
At the time, the accused's husband was in Hu’atolitoli Prison on drug offences. He was discharged later, in January, 2019
Informer
The Prosecution called four police officers to give evidence during the trial.
The Court heard that on May 17, 2018 one of the officers received a call from a reliable informer, that the accused was selling methamphetamine, and that a vehicle had just left her place after buying the drug from her.
The informer told the officer that he would try and find out where the accused kept the drug and ring him back.
The officer said after a while, the informer rang him and said he saw the accused go to a rubbish bag hanging in the house and got a diaper out of it and opened it and got the drug out of it and then she put the diaper back in rubbish bag and gave the drug to a person in a motor vehicle, which had just left her place.
The officer thought that if he was to seek a search warrant it would take time and the drug in the diaper might all be sold and gone by the time they would finally get from Nuku'alofa to Lapaha.
He decided to act right away, so he went and saw the officer-in-charge and they called a group and had them briefed, before they left to Lapaha.
Seizure
The police officers evidence said they got to the accused's home at Lapaha, and informed her they were there to search for drugs under their power under the Police Act.
The accused agreed and so they carried out the search and found the illicit drug and money.
The Court heard, she was asked whose were the drug packs, she said that they were may be her husband's.
The judge said, the defence counsel submissions did not dispute that the illicit drug was found in the diaper in the bag at the accused home.
She was then convicted on both counts.