Judge hands down 15 years jail, hard labour to husband killer

A LAE National Court judge on Friday said that courts will have to increase penalties for people taking other people’s lives unnecessarily.
Judge Frazer Pitpit said the importance of life given by God was divine and no-one had the right to end it prematurely.
He made the remarks when sentencing a woman in her early 30s and mother of two to 15 years imprisonment and hard labour for murdering her husband in Lae on Feb 12, last year. It was stated in court that Araga Arisai, from Raginam village, Markham in Morobe, was at Milfordhaven Road Primary School to visit her eldest daughter at school.
While there, Shane Afing also went to the school to visit their daughter.
Arisai, on seeing Afing (her husband) with his second wife’s child, became angry and they got into a heated argument.
During the argument, Arisai reached into her bilum, took out a small kitchen knife and stabbed Afing on his chest twice.
One of the stabbed wounds penetrated Afing’s left side and went through his lung, causing his death.
A medical report tendered in court confirmed that the husband died due to the stab wound
Justice Pitpit, when handing down the decision, told Arisai that her case was a typical domestic fallout that was happening right across the country.
“This incident is happening daily and is on the rise,” Justice Pitpit said.
He told Arisai that her sentence should serve as a deterrent to others who were likely to be involved in such unlawful acts.
“It is better to let the law deal with such situations rather than to take the other person’s life unnecessarily.”