A District Court in Lae cautioned and discharged three university students charged with drinking alcohol in public on Friday.
Magistrate Isaac Tjipet told the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech) students, who were released from custody, that many people had little regard for the law and drinking in public spaces was an example of this.
Police prosecutor Maureen Pohei told the court that the defendants should have known better, especially as they were university students.
She asked the court to impose a strict sanction on the defendants as a warning to others.
Many people have no regard for the law, they know it’s illegal but they keep drinking in public places.
You’re tertiary students and you’re supposed to be in school but you’re here in the box now.
Hopefully, this is a learning curve for the three of you.
Magistrate Tjipet
The three apologized to the court and promised not to commit the offense again.
Magistrate Tjipet then cautioned them about drinking alcohol in public places and warned that the court would not be lenient on them if they re-offended, and discharged them from custody.
The court also noted that two of the students had also been charged with resisting arrest.
It was alleged that on May 2, a police patrol unit spotted the defendants at the Unitech bus stop.
The police approached the three students who were drinking at the time and told them that they were going to take them to the police station to be processed.
But the students did not comply and instead demanded to know what they had done wrong.
The court heard that two of the students needed to be forcibly put in the police vehicle and taken to Lae Central Police Station.
The officers also confiscated eight bottles of beer from the trio.