Ex-lecturer guilty of manslaughter

By DOROTHY MARK
A FORMER university lecturer who caused the death of his wife by assaulting her will be sentenced next month by the National Court in Madang.
Justice David Cannings found Samuel Roth, a former Divine Word University lecturer, guilty of manslaughter last week.
He is expected to hand down the sentence on December 14.
The incident happened on Jan 11, 2015.
Roth was remanded in custody after his wife Lenneth Rus died and spent a few weeks on remand at Beon prison before he was granted bail for K2500.
Director of Medical Services at the Modilon Hospital Dr Vincent Atua said Lenneth had likely died from injuries she sustained from a beating.
“The back of her lungs were smashed,” Atua said.
Dr Juith Gawi also testified that Lenneth had several beating marks on her body.
She was to have started her Masters’ degree in Tourism and Hospitality in April 2015.
Roth, from Mul-Baiyer in Western Highlands, was a lecturer in inter-government relations and politics at the university.
He met and married Lenneth while she was a student at the university.
She was later employed at the Madang government headquarters as the officer responsible for the processing and issuing of IPA certificates at the commerce division. Her aunt Regina Ropra said she died in the bedroom of their family home at the university campus.
The row began, according to relative Iva Ali, when Lenneth went to Mount Hagen to visit her family.
Roth assaulted her when she returned home.
He took her to the hospital later but discovered she had died.