Wife basher gets suspended sentence

By ELIZABETH VUVU
DOMESTIC violence is a growing concern in Lihir with the number of cases before the district courts this year going up.
Most of the cases on the island are assault or sexual assault, a concern for resident magistrate Bruce Tasikul.
When sentencing James Lakitan to 12 months in prison for unlawful assault of his wife on Monday, Tasikul observed that not many male on the island attended events last week to mark international violence against women day.
He said the next day, five male appeared before the district court all charged with assaulting either their wives or a female.
Tasikul told Lakitan that he was one of them that were charged and this led to the question of whether or not men have respect for women.
He said even the district courts had been too lenient on domestic violence cases and there were many instances where men were the causes of the entire problem because of their multiple relationships to other women and when their wives tried to seek the truth, the husband made all sort of excuses to hide the truth by beating up their wives.
This was the case with Lakitan, who used a piece of timber to hit his wife on the head causing the timber to break in half after she approached the woman he was having an affair with to find the truth.
“You tried to cover up and shifted the blame to her for not being at home.”
The penalty for unlawful assault is a fine not exceeding K500 or custodial sentence not exceeding two years but taking into account particular circumstances.
Tasikul sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment, however, this was suspended on the condition that he restrained himself from further assaulting, intimidating or causing harm to his wife and restrained from consuming alcohol.
In the event that he breached these conditions, he would be arrested to serve the 12-month sentence.
“This is to show that, domestic violence is no longer acceptable. It also reflects the society’s call for an end to domestic violence and the trend in this type of offences.”