Cop killer gets life imprisonment

A MAN was jailed for life by the National Court for the murder of a police constable in Nawaeb on June 6, 2018.
Justice John Kaumi sentenced Thomas Saw Penda on Friday in Lae after he had pleaded guilty to murder on March 15.
Police constable Ben Melvin Jaratang was attached with the Public Safety Unit in the Lae police headquarters.
The court briefs stated that Jaratang and other policemen went to Nawaeb in response to a report of a fight in a school.
Between 10.30pm and 11pm, the police vehicle they were travelling in got stuck in mud.
While Jaratang was trying to reverse the car out of the mud, Penda and his co-accused, Amon, approached the police car.
Amon gave Penda a knife (double edge). The court heard that Penda walked up to the driver’s side and stabbed Jaratang on the right side of his chest, back and hand, and fled.
Jaratang fell unconscious and was rushed to the hospital in Lae where he was pronounced dead.
Court documents indicated that Jaratang suffered a 15cm-deep stab wound on the right side of his chest, another 8cm-deep wound on his right arm, another on the inner arm and three wounds to his back.
The defence lawyer asked for an appropriate sentence of between 17 and 30 years imprisonment term since Penda pleaded guilty at an early stage and no firearms were used.
The state prosecutor, however, submitted for the maximum life sentence to be imposed because a police officer was killed in the course of duty. In reference to Justice Ambeng Kandakasi’s comments on a similar case of The State vs Jackson, judge Kandakasi said: “It is well accepted now that a person who attacks any law enforcement officer such as the policeman and policewoman, judges, and magistrate and village court officials should be dealt with severely because the offence is against the law itself.”