Politics won’t stop police

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David Manning

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
POLICE Commissioner David Manning says political connections will not stop investigations into the abduction and assault of a 30-year-old woman in Port Moresby on Tuesday.
“The woman (alleged assailant) and her accomplices will be brought to the police station for questioning. The case will be pursued,” Manning said.
Manning said political connections of the woman will not stop police investigations.
“The attack is ‘sick’ and the culprits will be dealt with by the law.”
Last Tuesday, between 9am and 1pm, Samantha (not her real name) was abducted and assaulted for about four hours.
Samantha was accused by the woman for allegedly having an affair with her husband, a son of a prominent MP.
She was an employee of the woman’s husband and had assisted in his election campaign.
Samantha had received a text to meet with her employer, however, after arriving she was assaulted and kidnapped and driven around in a vehicle and taken to Rainbow and then to a settlement in Hohola.
Samantha was rescued by police following a tip-off that a woman was being beaten up and watched by a crowd in a settlement.
Comm Manning said: “Regardless of her family connections and her relationship to another, she does not have the right to take the law into her own hands.
“If there is an aggrieved party in a case, the police station is there for any person to lodge a complaint and be dealt with.
“For a woman to allegedly instigate an attack on another woman is sick and to allow that other woman to be assaulted allegedly by a large community is disgusting.
“To record the attack on video via a phone shows the disregard of a person’s pain and further degrades self-esteem. I condemn the attack in the strongest possible term.
I have asked that police look into this case,” Manning said.
Samantha is recovering from her ordeal in a hospital and remains strong, says her family.
Due to the political connections of the case, Samantha’s family requested anonymity but “we will fight this case and we will follow it till the end”.
“We want justice for our daughter and we will not rest till we get it,” a family spokesperson said.