Siu 'i Vahanoa Tu’ipulotu (49) was sentenced to two and a half-years imprisonment for serious housebreaking and robbery at a store in Ma'ufanga, where he punched the complainant several times, before stealing goods.

Acting Lord Chief Justice Afeaki sentenced him on November 18 at the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa. 

On October 13, he was found guilty by Lord Chief Justice Whitten, who is currently on leave abroad.

The offending was on 18 December 2019, at Ma'ufanga, where the defendant entered the store of Mr Xiu Ming Zhou, by stealth, where he stole some goods and violently attacked him by punching him six or seven times in the face.

The victim had left his store for a short time to get new stock from a nearby bakery.

He locked the front door of his store, but not the back door. When he returned, he opened the front door and the defendant was standing inside.

The victim shouted at the defendant to get out of his store, but when he tried to push the defendant away, he punched him in the face around his eyes. The victim then fell to the floor and the defendant continued punching him. The defendant then took some goods and the victims' mobile phone and left the store.

A formal complaint was lodged against the defendant and police arrested him.

Dr Puloka reported on 25 March that the defendant was fit to plead and that on the date of the alleged offending, he was unlikely to have been mentally insane.

"His previous criminal convictions make a depressing read of no less than twenty-two convictions from 1990 to 2020."

Deterrence

The defendant grew up in Ma'ufanga and in or about 1992, he went to New Zealand, lived there for one-year or so, and was then deported back to Tonga, after what he described as 'domestic violence'.

The judge said that the defendant's conduct at trial did not indicate that he had any remorse about striking the victim so many times and had even sought to raise the issue of self-defence in an attempt to justify his beating the victim.

“Having presided over the entire proceedings, Lord Chief Justice Whitten found the defendant's statements, cross-examination of witnesses and overall conduct untruthful and unhelpful to his case,” he said.

Justice Afeaki said that the accused's “own alcoholic self-destruction was becoming more dangerous not only to himself and his family, but also to other people in the community because more and more, he was repeatedly demonstrating dark, violent behaviour.”

"The level of his violence is escalating. Unchecked, this behavior is putting other people at increased risk of being attacked, burgled and or robbed or worse, by him."

He said imprisonment and rehabilitation processes had not worked on improving his behavior. The Court has a primary duty to protect the law-abiding members of society from people who behave like this.

“It is unfortunate to note that there is no resourcing for a legal aid system in the Kingdom which might otherwise provide competent, experienced legal counsel to assist in important violent criminal cases such as this, in particular where conviction upon indictment carries a custodial sentence of up to ten years,” he said.

Imprisonment

He  sentenced the accused to two and a half-years imprisonment or 30-months imprisonment.

The final nine-months' of his sentence was suspended on conditions, including 40-hours community service and completing a course in drug and alcohol awareness.

"Failure to comply with the above conditions may result in the suspension being rescinded, in which case, the defendant will be required to serve the balance of his sentence."