Court imposes curfew on teen

By JAMES GUMUNO
THE Mt Hagen District Court has imposed a five o’clock curfew on a teenager at the request of his mother who said she wanted to keep her son off the streets.
The 18-year-old’s movements will be restricted to his home after 5pm.
Magistrate Lydia Karre imposed the restriction on the movement of Regis Lawata, of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, after his mother alleged that her son was interacting with peers who had influenced him to smoke marijuana.
Lawata was arrested on Monday and charged with three counts of threatening behaviour, damaging property and attacking his mother.
Police alleged that the defendant at around 6.30am punched his mother, Pricilla Kipa, in the chest, damaged the side of their house with a rock and threatened his sister with a bush knife.
Lawata, who appeared in court from police custody, pleaded guilty to the charges.
He told the court that he had been provoke by his mother.
Kipa told the court that it was not the first time her son had behaved in this manner.
She said her son had behaved violently and in a threatening manner to her and other members of the family on three other occasions.
“He is going out very often in the afternoon and I suspect that he is smoking marijuana,” she said.
“I want to ask this court to impose some restriction on his movement and he must stay in the house.”
Magistrate Karre, when considering the request from the defendant’s mother, said that it was not appropriate for the court to give him a custodial sentence or impose a court fine.
She said the court would put the defendant on probation and restrict his movement.
“The court sets the following conditions, the defendant is stopped from going out of his house after 5pm,” the magistrate said.
“The defendant will do one hour of community work every Wednesday at the courthouse or police station starting March 4 to May 4 and is not allowed to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana.”
Magistrate Karre said probation officers would visit the defendant in his home at Newtown in Mt Hagen three times within the probationary period to ensure that he complied with the conditions sets by the court.
She said that the matter would return to court on May 6 for review.
She told the defendant that during the review, she expected to see some changes in his behaviour.