Policeman arrested after escaping

National

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
A police officer has been arrested after escaping from the National Court soon after he was convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl and burning houses in East Sepik, border divisional commander Assistant Commissioner Donald Yamasombi said yesterday.
Constable Stanley Moui Jombu, 28, from Passam, Wewak in East Sepik, was arrested in Maprik, also in East Sepik, after escaping from the Wewak National Court on June 20 while awaiting transportation to Boram Prison.
Other officers who were  convicted with him remain at large.
Yamasombi said that Jombu was arrested last Monday after a tip-off.
He said Jombu he had been charged with escaping from lawful custody and was remanded at the Boram prison.
“The other officers – Nigel Harvey, 28, and from Mikarew village in Bogia, Madang; Timon Kangapu, 33, from Irane village, Lake Kopiago Hela, and Robin Weibi, 31, from Tomonoum  village in Nuku, West Sepik – are still at large, ” Yamasombi said.
He said police officers and PNG Correctional Services who were at the court house when the policemen escaped would also be investigated.
They had escaped straight after receiving their sentences when mingling with their relatives among the crowd.
Seven warders who were there to take them to the Boram jail were unable to do anything.
The four police officers were convicted a total of 80 years by Justice George Manuhu for raping a 17-year-old woman during a police raid at Kwanubo
village in East Sepik on Dec 7, 2013.
Former Wewak police station commander Sakawar Kasieng, 57, from Nuku, West Sepik, was also sentenced to more than six years imprisonment for arson.
Manuhu ruled that Kasieng, as the commanding officer in-charge of the raid, failed to stop Jombu, Harvey, Kangapu and Weibi from burning down houses at the village.