A Justice of the Peace who sought clarification on assault on female cases following appearances by two defendants in the Criminal Court in Avarua in December, presented his findings last week.

Lawyers for men charged with assaulting females had wanted their clients to avoid convictions by letting them complete counselling, but JP John Whitta told the court on December 2 that he needed to seek clarification.

JP Whitta said he needed time to consult with a Chief Justice in regards to two matters, in terms of the influence of counselling on sentencing in such cases.

One of those cases came back to the Criminal Court on Thursday last week. 

JP Whitta had earlier said he was unsure where sentencing sat in terms of counselling, as it was running into tricky ground.

Charges had been withdrawn in the past, and diversion had been thrown out with counselling before sentencing, he said, while victims often wished to withdraw charges.

However, as Nooroa Samuel appeared on Thursday for one charge of assaulting a female, JP Whitta said the withdrawal of charges would never be mandatory.

“The prerogative is to seek advice from police,” he said.   

While the police prosecutor had previously confirmed there had been an application from the victim to withdraw the charge, there was still a problem in that diversion should not be taken into account when sentencing.

On Thursday, JP Whitta said counselling would be taken into account at sentencing.

The police prosecutor said it was also dependent on the nature of injuries.

In Samuel’s case, there were no injuries, while the complainant and defendant had both undertaken counselling.

JP Whitta said the application to withdraw the charge was granted.