Mother of 6 jailed 16yrs

By JIMMY KALEBE
A MOTHER of six was jailed 16 years by the National Court for stabbing her husband to death with a kitchen knife in 2019.
Justice Lawrence Kangwia, in a three-week circuit in Bulolo, Morobe, sentenced Michelle Tanggwo, 42, from Menyamya’s Kamima village in Morobe.
Tanggwo killed her husband after failing several attempts to have him settle their marriage problems in village courts and with other concerned authorities.
Defence counsel submitted that a sentence of 14 to 16 years would be appropriate while the State lawyer submitted for an imprisonment of 14 to 18 years, considering the aggravating factor of the offence of intention to murder.
Justice Kangwia said he considered what the Supreme Court stated on sentencing for murder in the case of Lawrence Simba–v-State (1994) PNGLR 88.
In that case, the Supreme Court stated that “each murder case be decided on a case-by-case basis, but always remembering that the sentence laid down by Section 300 of the Criminal Code Act is life imprisonment and the term of years is by virtue of Section 19”.
Justice Kangwia said Tanggwo’s case did not fall into the worst category of murder and the maximum prescribed penalty should not apply.
“Deaths where wives killed husbands by stabbing used to have special treatment with lenient sentences and have substantially increased in present times,” he noted in his written sentence.
“This is a gender-based violence and advocates of GBV, through huge publicity, seem to point an accusing finger in the direction of men and accord a sympathetic view for the women, and the current case speaks otherwise.”
Justice Kangwia said he had considered that Tanggwo lived in a very unhappy and tumultuous life after her husband betrayed her through his alleged wayward ways and failure to settle issues with the relevant authorities.
He ordered that time spent in custody for Tanggwo be deducted and she would serve the rest of her sentence with hard labour in Buimo Prison.