Suspended magistrate told to make proper application

A COURT has refused an application by a suspended village court magistrate to be reinstated after his case was thrown out for a lack of evidence.
Magistrate Marcus Nandape told Matthew Warakuapi, 61, from Holik village, Yangoru in East Sepik, at the Central Committal Court in Waigani to make a proper application to the right court for orders to be reinstated as the Committal Court dealt with criminal matters and not civil matters.
Warakuapi was charged with persistent sexual penetration of a 14-year-old female student from Kairuku, Central, on three different occasions in July last year.
The girl did not report the offence until she was sexually penetrated by another Alwis Wangon, 58, also from Holik village, Yangoru, last November where she reported the incidents to her parents.
Nandape said the charges of sexual penetration of underage children were serious and there needed to be sufficient evidence to commit offenders to face trial at the National Court.
He said, the evidence before the court was insufficient and confusing and not adequate to establish the charge and the medical report provided did not corroborate the girl’s claim.
Nandape made a ruling to have the case for both Warakuapi and Wangon be thrown out for insufficient evidence.