A group of drunkards has set fire to a family home at Laloki, just outside Port Moresby, after severely beating up a 14-year-old boy who had allegedly stolen a mobile phone belonging to one of them.
Among this group of eight men were three soldiers from the PNG Defence Force Goldie Barracks.
The incident occurred late yesterday afternoon.
Residents living at this settlement block met with members of the hierarchy at Goldie Barracks today to explain what had occurred.
The man, whose house was burnt down, is a serving member of the PNG Defence Force also.
His teenaged son was accused of theft and beaten up.
He and his family were assured by the Goldie Barracks hierarchy that an investigation will take place.
Elizabeth Tawe, the mother of the young boy, said she and others at the block stood and watched helplessly as eight men beat up her son.
The drunkards had locked the teenager inside a fenced up yard and beat him up.
The yard belongs to a family member of one of the soldiers.
She said after her son had given up the mobile phone, he was let out.
However, only briefly because the teenager was then pushed back inside the fenced area, and beaten up again.
Earlier on, other block residents who tried to reason with the drunkards were physically and verbally assaulted.
Eventually police had to be called to come and calm the situation down. But not before the drunkards set fire to Tawe’s house.
She could not save anything – not even her husband’s military uniform.
Tawe and her husband also have two younger boys.
They intend to let the law take its course and have the perpetrators arrested and charged.
It is understood that two of the soldiers involved were brought down to Murray Barracks and locked up in the Military Police cells.
The third soldier is yet to be apprehended.