Jail time for murderer protecting his father

 A MAN has been jailed for 12 years for murder after the court took into account he was trying to protect his father from being assaulted.

Justice Panuel Mogish told Charles Ono, 18, from Mekeo, Central, at the Waigani National Court House last Friday that it was not the “worst kind of murder” for three reasons – Ono was provoked, the man he killed was a drunkard and Ono had pleaded guilty. 

Ono stabbed the man from the same village on the chest on November 7, 2010, in Mekeo after the latter had threatened to harm Ono’s father.

Ono earlier pleaded guilty to murder but asked for leniency, saying he never meant to kill his fellow villager.

Mogish agreed that Ono had no strong intent to cause grievous bodily harm as there was only one stab wound to the chest. 

Mogish took into consideration mitigating factors that Ono was a first offender, a juvenile at the time of the offence, and that he had tried to protect his father from being attacked by the villager, who was drunk. 

When Ono had tried to intervene to protect his father, the villager attacked Ono with a bush knife. Ono then stabbed him in the chest. 

Ono’s jail term was reduced to nine years, five months, two weeks and a day after accounting for the time already spent in custody.