Fined and warned for obscene messages

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

A WOMAN who sent obscene text messages to her sister-in-law was  fined K500 by the Lae District Court yesterday.

The court also ordered her to pay K300 as compensation to her in-law.

Tracey Dickson, 28, from Wewak in East Sepik, was told to pay the money to her husband’s sister Lydia Arikawa by July 10 or risk eight-month imprisonment.

The court heard that the accused sent the messages on April 4.

“The text has hurt me. My husband and I had an argument because of these text messages and I went to stay in Nawae (Block) for two weeks,” Arikawa told the court.

She said she did not have any  grudge against the defendant that would have prompted her to send the obscene messages.

Dickson said the texts to Arikawa was from her old SIM card that she had given to an Everett Arikawa,  the complainant’s step-daughter.

Magistrate Sasa Inkung did not  believe Dickson.

“When you went to the police station, you did not tell police that you gave the SIM card to Everett. If you did, I’m sure the police would have  diverted the investigation to her,” Inkung told Dickson.

“The phone number is yours.”

Inkung told the accused that her action had affected the freedom and rights of the complainant.

He told her that she had broken the Communication Act and faced a fine of K20,000 but he had dropped the amount to K500.

Earlier this month a similar offender was also fined K500.