Alcohol abuse rife

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday July 29th, 2013

 ALCOHOL promotes lawlessness and ethnic clashes and should not be consumed in public, a magistrate said last Friday.

Lae District Court magistrate Nasaling Bingtau said this when he fined Jemenian Xavier, 22, from Maprik, East Sepik, K500 for drinking in public.

The court heard that police confiscated a phone in his possession which contained pornographic movies. Xavier pleaded guilty to the offence.

In another matter, the magistrate ordered two policemen to return to court next month after they denied charges of assault and destruction of property.

The two probationary constables were alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol and broke the doors and walls of a unit at a police barracks in Lae. They allegedly punched a police officer.