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WNB trio get 10 years for arson
By ELIZABETH VUVU
THREE men in West New Britain province, who
are charged with arson, were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for
deliberately burning down a bush material house after a dispute with the
owner over his straying pig.
Kimbe National Court judge David Cannings last Friday convicted brothers
Oscar Rebon, 35, and Alken Rebon, 24, from Kokopo, and 31-year-old
Nautim Benal from East Sepik.
The court heard that last Dec 21 at the Tamba oil palm settlement near
Kimbe, the three offenders burnt down a bush-material house in which the
complainant, Blaike Yalopi and his family were living.
The incident happened late in the afternoon while the complainant was
asleep in the house.
The offenders joined with a number of others in raiding the
complainant’s house, assaulting Blaike, terrorising him, his wife and
children and setting fire to the house as an act of vengeance committed
by Blaike and his relatives against a friend of the co-accused, Wain
Latiti.
The court heard the direct cause of the incident was that one of the
complainants’ pigs had strayed into a nearby block belonging to the
family of the third offender, Benal.
Nautim’s mother speared the pig that later resulted in Blaike demanding
compensation but his demand was rejected.
The court heard that supporters of Blaike then assaulted Wain who had to
be taken to the hospital for treatment.
Wain’s supporters, including the three offenders then staged their
attack on Blaike’s house burning it down.
“A person’s home is their ‘castle’ – whether it is a mansion on Touaguba
Hill in Port Moresby or a bush material on the edge of an oil palm
settlement in WNB,” Justice Cannings said.
 
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