Poni ‘Ahohako (26) was found guilty of serious housebreaking and causing serious bodily harm, when he hit Ramsay Dalgety on the head with a teapot when he broke into his home on February 8 this year, at Ha'ateiho.

Hon. Mr Justice Niu conivicted him on the two charges on December 15, after a trial at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court. He will be sentenced on February 2, 2022.

The judge said the complainant gave evidence that he lived at his home with his son, Neil, and that he returned home that day at about 2:00pm, while his son was still at work. 

The complainant said that after entering his house he looked out the window and saw someone inside his property and that he shouted at the person and the person disappeared round to the front of the house, and as he went along the hallway to the front, the front door burst open from outside.

A man in a long sleeved, black, hooded top and dark or black trousers attacked him and he kept the person away from him with his straight arm, his hand holding the person round the throat and fended off the blows from the hands of the person. 

He said the person had shoes or work boots on and was kicking at his feet and thigh. He said that they struggled like that up to a set of shelves and the person grabbed a china teapot that was on one of the shelves and smashed it against the left side of his head and that he fell down on the floor and the person kicked him on his back before he ran off.

Nothing was missing from the house. The complainant then rang his son's secretary and the police came over and he was taken soon afterwards to hospital where a doctor attended to him and he went home afterwards.

The complainant said he was in pain from his head and his back and had to stay home for a week. He also later identified the accused from a set of photographs that he was shown by the police as the person who had entered and attacked him. 

In addition, the doctor's evidence was that he saw the complainant at the hospital at 3:50pm and he complained of pain on the left side of his head.  The doctor described it in his report as "minor haemorrhages on the right ear canal but not actively bleeding" and there were small specks of blood on his right thigh and that there were "muddy skid boot marks on the left foot and on the legs", said the judge.

Accused

The accused who gave evidence said he did not commit the offences because he was elsewhere at the time, and all he could say was that it was not him who had committed the offences.

The Crown counsel then made submissions that the complainant positively identified the accused from the photographs as the person who had committed the offences, and that other evidence, namely that of the bowser attendant and of the person at the shop in Veitongo confirmed the presence of the accused in the area, as well as the clothes the complainant said the person wore. 

In addition, the evidence of alibi raised by the accused failed to prove he was not there at the scene of the crime because the witness he called did not know what day the offence occurred and where the accused was on that day, said the counsel.

Proof 

The judge said, having heard the evidence of the complainant that the person burst through the front door, by either kicking or by putting his shoulder, with great force on the front door and forcing the door bolt to rip the metal latch on the door frame together with part of the timber door frame to split off the door frame and thrown several meters from the doorway on the floor of the hallway inside.

This confirmed what happened when he saw the photographs produced in exhibit, and accepting the evidence of the complainant that he had not invited the person to do that or to come inside.

"Accepting that the person assaulted the complainant by punching and kicking him and hitting his head with a china teapot he took off a shelf in the house, I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the person entered the complainant's house as a trespasser and that he committed a crime in the house."

The judge was also satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the person caused serious bodily harm to the complainant.

"What I found most damaging to the accused and most supportive of the complainant's evidence was that the accused lied to Officer Lauti, that he did not commit these offences because he had been in 'Eua when they were committed."

“The accused gave no evidence that he was at 'Eua at all. I do not believe the alibi he gave evidence about. I believe the evidence and the identification which the complainant has made instead,” he said.

The judge also did not believe the accused's evidence that a person at the prison had told him that he was the one who had committed these two offences at the complainant's house, on that day.

He then convicted him to be sentenced on February 2, 2022.

Life peer

The complainant, is a life peer. Ramsay Robertson Dalgety, Lord Dalgety of Sikotilani Tonga is a Scottish and Tongan lawyer and judge. Scottish QC since 1986, and Tonga Law Lord since 2008.