Court fines man K300 for assaulting mother-in-law

A MAN who admitted to assaulting his mother-in-law was fined K300 and in default face six months’ jail.
Steven Mathew, 22, from Kware village in Erave, Sothern Highlands, pleaded guilty to assaulting Joyce Mark before Lae District Court Magistrate Isaac Tjipet.
Magistrate Tjipet told Mathew that there were other proper ways that he could have followed to deal with the problem instead of taking the law into his own hands.
Mathew told the court that he was angry with Mark for hiding away his wife and child and pretending that she didn’t know their whereabouts.
He said he spent a lot of money looking for his family and that angered him. Mathew said he assaulted Mark after learning that she was hiding his family from him.
Magistrate Tjipet told the court that assault or fighting was becoming common in today’s community where if a person got angry over little things he or she assaulted another person.
He said that kind of behaviour was wrong.
There are other ways to deal with such problems,” Majistrate Tjipet said.
The magistrate placed Mathew on a good behaviour bond for six months.
He told Mathew to behave by keeping the peace at all times with his in-laws, not consuming alcohol or any drugs and not committing any offence in the duration of his bond.