Penisimani Angilau received a suspended sentence today for causing serious bodily harm to another man, when he hit him with a piece of timber fracturing his left hand at Vaini.

Hon. Mr Justice Niu sentenced him at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court, on two charges of serious causing bodily harm to Matini Veatufunga, the complainant, and for wilfully damaging his car on March 27 this year.

The judge said, at first the accused denied committing these offences, but after the Crown witnesses had given their evidence, he then admitted that he committed the offences.

According to the complainant, the accused drove his car to the fuel pump at the petrol station in Vaini. When the complainant got there, the accused demanded that he back off his car because he said he was there first.

The complainant refused to back off and so the accused got out of his car and came and punched his front passenger, then went and got a 4x2 piece of timber from his car and came and hit the side mirror of his car with it.

When the complainant got out of his car, the accused attacked him with the timber on his left forearm and broke the lower bone of his forearm, and he also smashed the rear window of his car, said the judge.

The complainant said his forearm was casted for some six-weeks for the bone to heal.

Crown's submission

The Crown said the accused's attack on the complainant was premeditated and unprovoked, and 
that he chased after the complainant with a 4x2 piece of timber and struck his hand with the piece of timber, which in effect was a 
weapon and caused a fracture to his hand.

He also has a previous conviction for causing bodily harm. 


The Crown counsel submitted that the accused was also not entitled to any suspension and that he had failed to comply with the condition of a suspended sentence on another case

Jumped queue

The accused made his oral submissions in Court and said that the Crown was wrong to say that he was not provoked to commit the two offences.

He said that the complainant had provoked him to do what he did by jumping the queue and driving into and stopping at the pump as he was there queuing. He said that he told the complainant to move his car back but he refused to. He also claimed that he was the victim of the improper act of the complainant and his friends instead. He also gave the complainant $1,000 altogether, $500 in cash and $500 in goods, which he requested, he said.

The judge said, when he listened and watched the complainant give his evidence, and also that of the witness, Taniela Tonga, he did not believe their evidence at all. He believed the evidence of the accused instead.

“I accept that the accused was there queueing behind the vehicle which was being filled by the bowser girl and that he was rightly the next person to have his vehicle filled, but that after that vehicle in front of the accused left, the complainant drove his vehicle right up to the pump from the opposite direction and thereby blocked the accused from proceeding forward to have his car filled, as was his right to be filled up next,” he said.

"The complainant knew he was doing wrong by jumping the queue and he knew that the accused was angry with him for doing that. The accused told him angrily to back his arse off from the pump. Yet, he stayed put and refused to back off and caused the accused to be further frustrated."

The judge said he was therefore satisfied, on the evidence, that the complainant unlawfully and wrongfully provoked the accused to hit him with the piece of timber and thereby fracture his ulna, and that he also provoked the accused to damage the rear window, as well as the left side mirror of the car.

“In these circumstances, the accused would not have committed these two offences had the complainant not provoked him in the way that he did. I consider that the he ought to be given that second chance, in the special circumstances of this case on the offence of serious causing bodily harm,” he said.

The judge then sentenced him to 12-months imprisonment, which was suspended for one-year, on conditions.

At the same time, the accused’s period of suspension of two-years ordered by the Court on November 24, 2020 in the other case was extended for a further six-months.