A 28-year-old man who pleaded guilty to serious injuring his brother when he hit him with a machete suffers from mental illness. He was ordered by the Supreme Court to be involuntarily admitted to the  Vaiola Hospital Psychiatric Unit, instead of being sentenced.

Maka’one Angilau pleaded guilty to one count of serious causing bodily harm to Tu’ifua Angilau (32). 

On September 12, 2019 while at a tax allotment in Folaha to get coconuts the accused hit the victim on his head and other parts of his body with the machete.

The Court heard when they drove there, the victim had teased the accused and they started to quarrel.

At the plantation, the victim who was standing and waiting for another man to drop down some coconuts, was surprised when he saw the accused holding a machete and was about to hit him with it.

The victim held up his left hand trying to shield his head, and as a result, the machete hit his hand first before hitting his head. 


He fell to the ground and the accused hit him again with the machete, this time on his left shoulder, his chest and thigh. 


The other man, who heard the victim yelling for help, saw the accused hitting the victim with the machete and intervened. 


The accused then walked away and sat in the van, while the other man ran to the main road to stop a vehicle to take the victim to Vaiola hospital.

Mental illness 

Hon Mr Justice Niu in an order on June 2, said an initial report by the authorised psychiatrist, Dr Mapa Puloka on May 1, said the accused has been maintained on anti-psychotic medication since October 8, 2019.

The accused was diagnosed and established to be suffering from mental and behavioral disorder, but he was able to enter a plea, as he had done, to this charge in Court, in March earlier this year.

The judge considered the full report of Dr Puloka dated May 18, after further diagnosis of the accused since his first eport.

He found that the accused is still vulnerable to repeat violent behavior towards others, and that he is currently on antlpsvchotlc-medication and that the psychiatric service will continue to follow up the accused for a long time and that he may develop schizophrenia in the future, and may already be in the Prodromal Phase of Schizophrenia.

Dr Puloka had recommended the accused be kept on long-term detention at the Hu'atolitoli Prison hospital, where he was kept.

However, after receiving a certificate on May 26 from Dr Puloka, the judge said in accordance with section 68 of the Mental Health Act 2001, the accused satisfied the criteria for involuntary admission to the mental health facility on the grounds of mental illness.

He then issued a treatment order instead of imposing a sentence in light of the accused condition and circumstances.

The judge then ordered for the accused to be transfered from prison to the hospital, where he shall continue to be under the care and treatment of the psychiatric ward.