Employee in arson probe claim set free

AN employee of the National Museum in Port Moresby who allegedly set fire to her family home on Silkwood Street on Feb 25 walked free after police failed to complete investigations within the required three-month period.
Magistrate Cosmos Bidar told Joyce Taien, 32, of Kari village, Lorengau, Manus, she was free to go because police had not completed investigations within the required time.
Taien was alleged to have wilfully and unlawfully set fire to her family home, a property owned by her husband Luke Lapun. The police summary of facts alleged that at 10.30am on Feb 25, Taien went to her husband’s house on Silkwood Street, Hohola No. 3 and fought with a woman living with her husband.
After the fight, her husband was outside when she was alleged to have gone into their children’s room and set fire to the house.
Her husband reported the matter to the Hohola police station and police later arrested Taien at the National Museum in Port Moresby on April 11.