Late medical reports irk court

The National National

By JIMMY KALEBE
A MAGISTRATE in a Committal Court has suggested that the police hierarchy in the Lae metropolitan the provincial command liaise with authorities of Angau General Hospital to fast track post-mortem reports.
Senior Magistrate Pious Tapil said many major cases in murder, rape and others were either delayed or struck out because of want of post-mortem reports. “Time and again, police arresting officers have appeared in court to explain the delay of the cases and in most instances, they told the court that it was because of the unavailability of post-mortem reports from doctors,” Magistrate Tapil said.
He said that is why the police hierarchy should now liaise with authorities of Angau General Hospital and come up with a solution.
“Court processes cannot be delayed for long. Many major cases had been struck out because of this,” Magistrate Tapil said.
He said justice had to be served in a timely manner, which means accused persons could not be held for so long in custody without properly processing them through the court process.
Post-mortem reports form part of the vital information that the courts need to come up with an informed ruling, especially on murder, rape and other major crimes.
An arresting officer, Snr Constable Andrew Alex, on Friday told the court that there were many cases pending in court now that were delayed because reports from the doctors were not ready to be presented with the other documents such as police files in relation to a particular case.
“This is an ongoing issue that many arresting officers are facing now, especially in relation to major cases that require doctor’s report,” Alex told the court,” he said.
This report is an essential part of the evidence that the courts will rely on to make its ruling.
This issue was raised after the court struck out a wilful murder case against Caleb Wangi, 20, from Maprik’s Bengragum village in East Sepik, because a medical report was not presented before the court after the fact that the defendant was in custody long enough.