Bag-snatcher jailed for prison to change him

By DAPHNE WANI
A MAN who robbed a female police officer has been jailed for four years to give him a chance to “change”.
Waigani National Court judge Justice George Manuhu told Toho Peter, from Gumine district in Chimbu, that the court was giving him a custodial sentence because it wanted him to change his ways.
Peter had pleaded guilty to the charge of armed robbery.
The incident happened at 2-Mile in Port Moresby.
Justice Manuhu said he accepted the report by the Probation Office which warned that if Peter was given a non-custodial sentence, he was likely to be influenced by his peers to commit another offence.
“Women and girls should be able to move around freely in the city and they look upon men for protection,” he said.
Peter who resides at the 2-Mile hill settlement will serve only two years and 11 months with deduction made for time spent in custody.
Justice Manuhu said the 2-Mile and Badili areas were known for such hold-ups in the city and if Peter was given a suspended sentence, he was likely to re-offend.
The court was told that Peter had followed police officer Lena Wafinduo into a bus travelling to Badili.
He threatened to stab her, grabbed her bag and fled.
Meanwhile, Wafinduo yesterday told The National that she was still traumatised by the incident.
But she was satisfied with the jail term, saying it would serve as a deterrent to criminals living in those settlements.
She urged victims of bag-snatching, especially women to report the matter to police.