THREE men who escaped from Rove prison last December have been sentenced recently in the Honiara Magistrate’s Court on various jail sentences.
Frank Firimolea, Dilo Faiga, and Willie Olo were sentenced after pleading guilty to the charge of escaping lawful custody.
Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison imposed a starting point of 12 months jail term but then had it reduced to reflect their guilty pleas and personal circumstances.
Firimolea and Olo received an eight-month jail term each while Faiga was sentenced for seven months imprisonment.
The sentences for Firimolea and Faiga were ordered to be backdated to when they were re-arrested by police on 15 February 2020 while Olo’s sentence was ordered to run consecutive to his present three-year jail term.
Olo was serving his three-year jail term for a separate robbery offence when he and his two co-accused escaped from prison on 15 December 2017.
This means that Olo’s eight-month jail term will commence after he completed his three years jail term.
In his sentencing remarks, Hollison said their escape is an insult and arguably a disparagement on the justice and legal system of the country.
“They illegally escaped from the CSSI correctional facility to free themselves from lawful and legitimate incarceration.
“For Mr. Olo’s case, if he was not happy with his sentence for the robbery that he is presently serving, he could have instructed his lawyer to appeal the case.
“He admitted the offence of robbery and was convicted on his own guilty plea in December 2019 and the only avenue to overturn the sentence is by way of an appeal to the High Court.
“That has not been done,” Hollison said.
He added that Olo then absconded which will only exacerbate his current situation.
Hollison said it is therefore proper that Olo’s sentence for this escaping lawful custody case should be served consecutively to the robbery case as they arose from different transactions.
He further added that similarly for Faiga and Firimolea, they should have made proper bail applications instead of absconding.
The trio escaped from the Correctional facility at Rove, Honiara on 15 December 2019.
They climbed over the heavily barbed wire security fence at the southern side towards the Honiara Botanical garden 6 pm and 9 pm and escaped.
Soon after their escape, police set up a task force called “Operation Hunt-Man” to hunt down these three escapees.
Convicted prisoner Willie Olo was the first to be recaptured in the early hours of January 17 at the LDA area at Betikama, East of Honiara.
Firimolea and Faiga were recaptured on February 15 in a RAV4 vehicle along the Burns Creek main road.
Olo was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment on 9 December 2019 for an armed robbery incident on 23 August 2019 in Honiara.
Faiga and Firimolea were remanded for separate armed robbery charges.
Apart from the armed robbery charge, Firimolea is also facing separate break-in charges.
Rodney Manebosa of Public Solicitor’s Office represents the trio while Public Prosecutor Olivia Ratu Manu appeared for the Crown.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
