Magistrate: No drinking alcohol in public

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

ALCOHOL promotes lawlessness and ethnic clashes and should not be consumed in public, a magistrate said last Friday.

Lae District Court magistrate Nasaling Bingtau said this when he fined Jemenian Xavier, 22, from Maprik, East Sepik, K500 for drinking in public.

The court heard that the accused was with a group of men drinking alcohol in Lae when a police unit spotted them.

“Your friends ran away when they saw police but you were caught,” the prosecutor said.

The court also heard that police confiscated a phone that was in the possession of the accused which contained pornographic movies.

The accused pleaded guilty to the offence.

“Don’t drink beer, it is not important like food or water,” Bingtau lectured the courtroom.

“Alcohol promotes ethnic clashes and lawlessness in our city,” he said.

In another matter, he ordered two policemen to return to court next month after they denied charges of assault and destruction to state property.

The two probationary constables were alleged to have been under the influence of alcohol and broke the doors and walls of a unit at a police barracks in Lae. 

They allegedly punched a police officer.

Police allege that on July 9, between 5pm and 7pm, the pair after being intoxicated with alcohol went to the room of one their colleagues and broke his door and wall after accusing him of sending text messages to the phone of the wife of one the officers.

Another policeman who tried to stop them was allegedly punched in the face by the men.

Both officers, who appeared in person before Bingtau, denied the charges.

Bingtau adjourned their matter to next month.