Officer on sex charge awaits decision on further trial

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

A POLICE officer in Lae will know on Friday whether a sexual charge against him will proceed to the higher court for trial.

District Court magistrate Nasaling Bingtau yesterday told Sgt James Luan that a decision on his case would be made then.

The court heard that Luan had allegedly touched the breast of a woman at the Momase regional police training centre at Bumbu Barracks in Lae on March 8 at around 9am.

The woman was at the centre to lodge an application for a family member who wanted to join the police force. 

Police alleged that despite the woman’s protests, Luan allegedly touched her breast. 

Luan was then acting director of the regional police training centre. 

He had appeared before Magistrate Posain Poloh in April who disqualified himself from the case because he personally knew Luan.

In another matter, a student in possession of marijuana was sentenced to nine months in prison.

Samuel Arnold, from Nabak, in Nawaeb, Morobe, was caught with the drug packed in a bilum near the Lae main market at around 1pm on Oct 2.

Arnold told the magistrate that he was a student at Erap Primary School and wanted a three-month sentence.

But Bingtau refused, saying some students were causing headaches for the courts by doing silly things. He sentenced him to nine months imprisonment. 

“You must not think of marijuana again when you come out of prison because marijuana has made many good people go half-sense,” he said.