Police in Lae are putting their foot down on curbing down on 'out of court settlement' and or compensation for sexual offences.
The Lae Metropolitan Superintendent commander Anthony Wagambie Junior, who is also the chairman of the Family sexual violence Action committee-Morobe, said sexual offences ranging from child molestation, sexual touching, rape and incest are some of the very serious crimes that sometimes are never properly addressed.
He said this may be due to, relatives or communities agreeing to certain conditions including compensations or out of court settlements, thus resulting in perpetrators walking away without being dealt with accordingly.
Sexual offences are some of the major crimes that are somewhat never dealt with accordingly in many parts of the country due to these kind of activities.
He said, this will not be tolerated anymore in the city and the Lae metro police have been directed to action law enforcement immediately on the concerned matter.
Wagambie said there are people especially self-appointed community leaders and certain relatives who encourage this reckless behavior: he is warning that those found facilitating or encouraging this dysfunctional behavior will be arrested and charged.
Wagambie jnr said, "We must be mindful of the survivor(s) and or the person(s) experiencing these violence or abuse, they will be left to suffer the consequences, traumatised and scarred for life.
The Met Sup is calling on the members of the communities to work together with the police in addressing this issue.
"We have an active CID sexual offences Squad, as well as Family Sexual Violence Unit who are ready and willing to assist", he said.
He encourages that appropriately dealing with sexual offences, will deter offenders from repeating their actions; compensations and other such approaches only encourages.
The public is encouraged to report to the nearest FSV offices at Lae Central police Station, and the two newly set up offices at China town police station and 3 mile police stations or call the toll free number 70903300 to report.
The Met Sup also noted that person's living with disability, women and children are vulnerable in sexual violence, adding that there are also cases of male survivors.
He further assured that survivors will be sent to appropriate and effective network of care and counselling'
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