New April date set for ferry trial

THE trial relating to the Rabaul Queen disaster will return to the National Court in Kokopo, East New Britain, in April after the State asked for an adjournment.
Ship owner Peter Sharp and two others are facing a charge of sending or taking an unseaworthy vessel out to sea.
The other two are Anthony Tsiau, the captain of the ferry during that ill-fated trip, and the company’s Kimbe branch manager, Grace Amen.
Kokopo public prosecutor Lukara Rangan appeared for the State before Justice Terrence Higgins on Monday and asked for an adjournment to prepare witnesses and organise funding.
Sharp who appeared without a lawyer objected to the application.
Tsiau and Amen were represented by the Public Solicitor’s Office in Kokopo.
Justice Higgins granted the application and adjourned the case to April 3.
Last July, Sharp and Tsiau were acquitted of 172 manslaughter charges following a no-case submission by defence lawyers.
The State had called up 130 witnesses and tendered 105 exhibits before it closed its case on the manslaughter charges.
The ferry with about 300 on board sank off the Finschhafen coast in Morobe on Feb 3, 2012.