Three cops deny assaulting suspect

By ADRIAN MATHIAS
THREE policemen have denied assaulting a bank robbery suspect in connection with the Kerema bank case.
In the National Court in Bomana yesterday, they were accused of assaulting Dawere Kaini Mautaia during their investigations into the K800,000-plus bank robbery in 2008.
Senior constables Lawrence Williams and Joseph Paul and First Const Robin Graham were part of the investigating team attached to the Criminal Investigation Division armed robbery squad that was investigating the robbery.
The three policemen appeared before Justice Joseph Yagi yesterday to answer the allegations of threat and assault on Mautaia, who was facing charges of conspiracy robbery, kidnapping for ransom, deprivation of liberty of the persons kidnapped and receiving stolen properties and money along with William Nanua Kapris and six others.
Mautaia, a dinghy skipper who allegedly transported   Kapris out of Kerema to Malalaua, said earlier that he was threatened with a pistol and assaulted by police during his arrest on May 23, 2008, at the Kerema police station.
Mautaia, from Siviri village in Kerema, Gulf, related how he was arrested and then assaulted by Williams and Paul.
He said he was in the house when the police arrived.
He said the CID officers bashed him up before he was locked up in the police cell.
“I was ordered to remove my trousers and stood in shorts (sport wear).
“I was beaten on the head, hands, legs and body using a branch of a mangrove.”
But the CID officers said they had never assaulted Mautaia.
Meanwhile, the trial is continuing with both, the defence and the prosecution, calling their witnesses.
The defence said once all the witnesses, including state, were completed, it would proceed with a no-case submission.