Incest

PPC Tabali says for some reason, reports of incest rarely reach his office, even though they are aware of incidents occurring within the community.

“That’s a concern to me and I appeal to the people, especially the victims of those particular offences like incest, need to come forward and report these to the authorities,” he stated.

“So that we will stop these perpetrators from further committing this offence. It is animalistic.”

Identities of the man and the victims are being omitted from this article due to the age of the victims and the nature of the crime.

The man pleaded guilty before Justice Salatiel Lenalia at the Kokopo National Court and was sentenced to 39 years for two counts of persistent sexual abuse.

He was sentenced to 19 years and 20 years respectively for both counts on June 21.

The court suspended 9 years from his total sentence of 39 years, leaving him to serve 30 years at the Kerevat jail.

ACP Anton Billie issued the warning after rumours of Deputy Prime Minister Sir Leo Dion, who was allegedly charged with incest, went viral on social media.

Billie told Loop PNG today that people are coming up with all sort of allegations and complaints to tarnish the good name of prominent leaders in the province.

He confirmed that they received a complaint about the incident but treated it as not genuine as it was not from those involved or from a family member.

Manus Acting Police Provincial Commander, Senior Inspector David Yapu, revealed this when raising his concerns over the increasing trend.

He is now appealing to the community leaders in the province to speak up about this immoral practise within the family unit following recent reported incidents of young girls being sexually assaulted by male members of their own families.

He is calling on families to work together with police to address these issues.

The man (name withheld) is 46 years old and married with four children and two grandchildren.

He was arrested, charged and detained on May 29 for allegedly sexually touching the girl at their family home at June Valley.

It is alleged the man on May 28 sexually touched the biological daughter of his brother, a 10 year old girl while pretending to get the girl to recite her mathematics times tables after school.

The accused appeared in court for the first time with his lawyer with a verbal bail application that was later granted by Magistrate Cosmos Bidar.