Judge queries girl’s bail

By BEVERLY PETER
A JUDGE yesterday ordered that a girl facing a wilful murder charge be taken back to prison, questioning why she had been granted bail by a committal court.
The girl, a juvenile, allegedly murdered her boyfriend in Port Moresby on Nov 24, 2019.
Acting judge Justice Laura Kuvi said: “How did we not notice that someone (facing) a charge of willful murder was walking freely on the streets?
“Only the National Court and Supreme Court have the jurisdiction to grant bail for offences such as wilful murder, murder, armed robbery, rape and other serious crimes.”
The officer who brought the girl to court explained to the judge that she was released from custody and put under her parents’ care early last year.
The officer said the girl had spent three months in custody and was released after claiming that she had been sexually abused in prison, and that she also lost her mother to the Covid-19.
The officer said the girl’s release was granted by the Juvenile Court in Boroko.
The bail was extended when the case came before Justice Panuel Mogish at the National Court in Bomana last year.
Justice Kuvi said any bail application for the juvenile must be properly filed and heard in the National Court or the Supreme Court.
She set Feb 8 for the accused’s pre-trial report in the National Court.
Police alleged that the girl and her boyfriend, Samuel Joseph Pumai, were in a relationship during the time of the offence.
It is alleged that on Nov 24, 2019, she went to his rental flat in Waigani to see him, but was told that he was not home.
But she became suspicious when she saw his shoes at the door.
She again tried to enter the house but was blocked by her boyfriend’s brother.
She was walking away when she heard voices. So she went around the back of the house to check.
It is alleged that she saw through a window her boyfriend having sex with another girl.
She rowed with Pumai before going back to her home in Tokarara, and later returning with two aunts.
They waited outside the door while she went in, argued again with Pumai, and stabbed him on the chest with a kitchen knife.
Pumai was taken to the Gerehu Hospital but died later.