Accused of attacking client

A MONEY lender who allegedly assaulted a client who did not repay him what he was owed appeared in the Mt Hagen District Court yesterday.
David Lawrence, from Paglum village, Mul-Baiyer district, Western Highlands, was charged with causing grievous bodily harm, unlawfully entering a premises and destruction of property.
Lawrence was arrested and charged after allegedly attacking Rabi Waria on Feb 2.
The court was told that Lawrence used a bush knife and a piece of wood to attack Waria and destroy his property.
Waria suffered an injury to his ribs during the attack and lost property worth of K200.
Lawrence denied the charge of destroying property.
Lawrence said the reason he confronted Waria was that he was owed K3,000 by him.
He said he lent the money and collected repayments with interest and was following up what was owed to him by Waria, who had not completed paying back the agreed amount.
Lawrence said Waira did not respond in a polite manner to his request and this provoked him to attack Waira.
He also told the court he had been arrested twice for the same offence and had paid K1,000 in total for bail – K600 after the first arrest and K400 after the second arrest.
Mt Hagen District Court Senior Magistrate Betty Jacobs adjourned the matter to Aug 8.
She said the court needed to hear from a witness in order for her to get a clearer picture of the incident.