A man who had defended himself in the Criminal Court in Avarua a week ago had two counts of breach of probation charges against him withdrawn.

Oswell Tunupopo walked out of the courtroom a happy man after Probation Services apologised that they and Police Prosecution were not made aware of the defendant’s grant for an appeal.

On Thursday last week, Tunupopo defended himself, arguing that the charges against him should be withdrawn.

He had been charged with two counts of breach of probation, where the court heard that he failed to report to Probation Services on July 26.

In his defence, Tunupopo told Justice of the Peace Georgina Williams that he did not know if Probation Services was aware of his appeal application, which was granted on June 21.

He said that according to the Criminal Procedure Act, a probation order is paused when an appeal for the matter is granted.

Tunupopo was sentenced to 18 months’ probation with the first three months to community service in March this year.

He was convicted for an incident in Rarotonga on July 3, 2022 that revolved around an argument between him and a group of people. A number of children were present and an argument broke out about who would look after a couple of them. A woman intervened and Tunupopo pushed her. She allegedly pushed him back then he punched her in the face and she allegedly punched him in the private area and hit him on the head with a coffee filter.

Probation Services last week requested an adjournment to understand the matter.

Yesterday, a Probation Services officer said it was an unfortunate miscommunication where they were not informed about the appeal by the Court Registrar.

The probation officer said the defendant was made aware of this and they had requested the charge of breach be withdrawn.

JP Williams granted the application for withdrawal and said that Tunupopo would be advised on bail conditions by a judge after an application is made by Crown Law.