Ex-Cop Jailed 6 Months for Assaulting Boy, 10

Aformer Police officer who assaulted a 10-year-old boy to get him to admit an alleged theft incident has been jailed for six months. Suliano Manabua was sentenced at the Magistrates Court in Nausori for a crime he committed in 2017. Magistrate Shageeth Somaratne who presided over the case of the 34-year-old said: “Every person in this country has right to be free from subject to torture or degrading treatments and this right applies to suspects who are in detention also.”

It was highlighted in court that the child was having dinner with his family in his home on July 29, 2017 in Nausori.

Particulars of the case

Manabua, a Police officer at the time, received information about a missing phone.

He went to the home of the victim with a driver and spoke with the boy.

When the victim denied knowledge about the phone, Manabua held him by his collar and took him to the Nausori Police station.

He refused requests from the victim’s mother to accompany him and subjected him to physical assaults there.

The court heard that Manabua slapped the victim’s cheek and punched his lower back and threatened him until he revealed the whereabouts of the phone. Manabua kept the victim alone in the police station from 8pm to 1am.

Penalty

Magistrate Somaratne highlighted that the maximum penalty for Common Assault under the Crimes Act was one-year imprisonment.

He also highlighted Sections 41(1)(d) and 41(1)(e) of the Fiji Constitution which reads: “Every child has the right—

(d) To be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, any form of violence, inhumane treatment and punishment, and hazardous or exploitative labour”

Article 11(1) of the Constitution states every person has the right to freedom from torture of any kind, whether physical, mental or emotional and from cruel, inhumane, degrading or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment.

Magistrate Somaratne said: “The accused has failed miserably in his duty by subjecting a child to cruelty in the Police station and need to be denounced and other law enforcement officers need to deter also behaving in this manner in future.”

Manabua was given 28 days to appeal.