Results for From the Courts

A man who admitted purchasing and smoking meth, after pleading guilty to possession of illicit drugs, was discharged without conviction after a judge found he had 0.52 grams of methamphetamine left in a small bag, when police searched his trousers pocket. In acquitting Maika Maile (38) Justice Niu considered the amount of meth was “so infinitesimal”.

A 16-year-old boy who assaulted and robbed a Chinese shopkeeper in February this year was discharged without conviction by a Supreme Court judge on November 26 in Nuku'alofa who considered that: “a conviction for such a serious offence as robbery will be far more detrimental than the injury and theft he committed to the complainant."

A single 20-year-old man who was convicted of raping a woman last year in Tongatapu was sentenced to four-years and six-months imprisonment at the Supreme Court in Nuku'alofa.

Five men who were arrested on November 15 after illicit drugs and a pistol were seized in a vehicle during a police routine traffic stop on Hihifo Road and at a property in Fangaloto, appeared at the Fasi Magistrate's Court on November 26.

A stepfather was sentenced to 12 and a half years imprisonment for numerous offences that included serious indecent assault of his two young stepdaughters and raping one of them. The mother (42) who helped him commit some of these serious sexual offences was sentenced to seven years and three months imprisonment. The judge agreed that the offendings constituted a grave breach of trust and the sentence imposed should reflect it.

The Kingdom of Tonga has an arguable defence to claims made by Plaintiffs, Lord Sevele-'o-Vailahi and 10 former members of the Pacific Games Organizing Committee, Lord Chief Justice O. G. Paulsen ruled on November 8.

A 34-year-old taxi driver was acquitted of raping a 27-year-old mother after taking her to a bush area in Tokomololo in October last year.

An attempted murder charge has been made against the alleged male shooter in two petrol station shootings in Fanga and Veitongo on September 5, in addition to earlier charges of armed robbery.

A 23-year-old man, Halahone Taliai, was sentenced to 13-years imprisonment for the callous manslaughter of ‘Aiveni Tui (36), whom he struck with a machete at Vaini in 2016. His younger brother, Sosefo Malimali Vea, received two years and 3 months sentence, after being convicted on a lesser count..