By Linny Folau

Hemaloto Manukailea (50) was sentenced to 19-months imprisonment with part suspended for causing serious bodily harm, when he punched another man, fracturing his jaw, outside a bar in Nuku’alofa, on a night out of drinking alcohol.

Justice Cooper sentenced him earlier this month to serve 19-months' imprisonment, the last six months suspended for one year on conditions, at the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa. The accused initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty when re-arraigned in March.

Drinking

The judge stated that on the night of Thursday, 20 April 2023, the victim, Paula Lolohea went out drinking in the Nuku'alofa. At around 1:30am, on the next morning, the victim arrived at Ciora Bar and asked the security guard, Tiasi Taufa if he could enter. However, Mr. Taufa refused stating the bar was closing. At the same time the accused was leaving the Ciora Bar, finishing off a beer that he bought inside the bar.

Taufa started talking to the accused as he finished his beer. Meanwhile the complainant started swearing at Taufa. When the accused finished his beer, he walked out to where the victim was standing and still swearing, and punched him on the left side of his chin, causing him to fall to the ground.

The victim felt his jaw break when he was punched, and the accused also went his way. On the following day, he went to the Vaiola Hospital and underwent surgery to re-align his jaw. He was admitted for around one week and discharged on 27 April 2023. According to the attending doctor, he suffered a fracture to the left and right body of his mandible bone, which was consistent with blunt force to the face.

In the final medical report, dated 10 April 2024 it was noted that the victim suffered a bilateral mandibular fracture and was treated at the Vaiola Hospital. The initial treatment was for tooth extraction at the fracture site. His jaw bone was realigned and fixed in place with wire.

In May of the same year, the Police arrested the accused and when interviewed, he admitted to the offence. However, he claimed that he did not intend to punch the complainant because he was too drunk.

The Crown submitted the aggravating features were that the accused had convictions that related to acting as a public nuisance; he caused severe injury to the victim's jaw (two fractures), leading to the extraction of two teeth; the victim still suffered from the injury as explained in the Victim Impact Report. This was so despite the updated medical report saying the victim's mandible fractures had healed and there was no reasonable provocation by the victim, stated the judge.

Mitigating factors were that to a certain degree, the acused had apologised to the victim and gave him $200 to help buy some liquid food during the time he could not eat solid food; his guilty plea, although late. In addition, he was a first time offender for offending by assaulta or violence.

The victim stated that he had experienced pain and discomfort as a result of the assault even up until the date of the interview on 5 April 2024. Since the incident he had only been able to eat liquid and easily digestable foods. He also stated that his sleep was affected and he wakes in the night and feels his jaws are locked and in pain.

Over-reacted

In the meantime, the judge stated that the insulting words spoken were unpleasant and abusive, but Mr. Maukailea over-reacted in resorting to violence as a response, not least as the words were not directed at him. The provocation was not particularly serious. Against that it was a spontaneous action and a single strike.

The judge set a starting point of 26 months. It took into account the aggravating feature of targeting the face of the victim.

“This I reduce by two months to reflect that Mr. Manukailea reacted to abusive words, which started the altercation. For his guilty plea, albeit that it did not come at the first opportunity, I reduce his sentence by 20%, in this case by five months. That gives a sentence of 19 months,” ordered the judge.

“The public must be protected from violence and the streets of Tonga must be safe places for the community. The custody threshold has been passed; this offence is so serious only a prison sentence is merited.”

The judge took into account the accused candid assessment of his actions in the pre-sentence report, his expressions of remorse and the letters written in his support. The last six-months of the sentence was suspended for one-year on conditions, that included being placed on probation and he must complete life skills and alcohol awareness courses.