THE High Court has sentenced the young man who confessed to the murder of a young diplomat outside of the Central Market in 2012 to nine years imprisonment.
Justice Francis Mwanesalua imposed a starting point of 12 years imprisonment for the 20 year-old accused.
This was after he considered submissions from both the prosecution and the defence counsel.
“In my view three years imprisonment is to be deducted from the 12 years.”
Justice Mwanesalua told the accused he has the right to appeal his sentence if he is not happy with it.
Prosecution has sought a high level sentence for murder committed by juveniles because quiet often, young offenders come to court and hiding behind the cloak of youthfulness, pray to court for more clemency than adult offenders.
The defence asked the court to sentence his client under the Juvenile Offender’s Act as he was a juvenile when he committed the offence.
Public Solicitor’s advisor Sevuloni Valenitabua submitted that the appropriate starting point should be seven years imprisonment and for the accused to serve part of the sentence outside of prison.
But Justice Mwanesalua said he will not consider allowing the accused to serve part of the sentence outside of prison.
He said this case is different given the magnitude of the assaults on the deceased.
“Perhaps this is the time to stand up from such behaviour from re-occurring in the future,” he said.
“We have many young men residing in Honiara.”
He said in this case the deceased had lost his life.
The accused was 17 years of age at that time of the incident where he and others involved in the brutal assault of Simon Fuo’o outside of the market.
This was in the early hours of April 21, 2012 outside of the Honiara Central Market when Fuo’o was on his way home with friends after night out.
The late Fuo’o was attacked when he came out of his vehicle to confront a group of men who set up a road block outside of the market.
The accused was charged with three other men, Cecil Manu, Simon Peter Delemani, and Peter Diau who have denied the murder charge and have stood a trial in the High Court.
Their fate will be known on August 28.
Sarah Karani, Nigel Galo, and George Gray, represent the three adult accused while State Prosecutor Miriam Manata and the Director of Public Prosecutions Ronald Bei Talasasa appeared for the Crown.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
