John Karo and Peter Ripo are serving life imprisonment after they were found guilty over the wilful murder of Ian Liriope on 6 November 2003 at the Tete settlement at Gerehu, Port Moresby.
They were among a group of five men who broke into the deceased’s residence at 3am that day and killed Liriope by chopping him on the back of his neck with an axe before shooting him three times with a gun.
The deceased’s daughter and wife were also in the house at the time of the attack. The wife was raped by four other youths in the presence of the deceased before he was killed.