Woman gets 14 years for murder

By JAYNE SAFIHAO, The National

THE National Court in Madang last Thursday sentenced a woman to 12 years jail with hard labour for killing another woman after she suspected her of having and affair with her husband.
Agnes Baru Anton, 18, from Karisokra village in Bundi stabbed the woman to death last Aug 17 after finding her conversing with her husband at a village disco.
According to facts before the courts, Anton had been forced into marrying her husband and was two months pregnant at the time.
She went to the disco because she had heard rumours of her husband talking to the deceased in places.
At the disco she saw the woman standing next to her husband in a secluded place away from the main dance area.
“I felt bad when I saw them together as he had forced me to marry him and made me pregnant and now he was with this woman.
“I thought of how my father had left us and it seemed like the sort of thing was going to happen again.
The woman died from three stab wounds.
Agnes was attacked and lost her baby. Her house was also burnt down in retaliation.
A compensation or “bel kol moni” of K1,370 and seven pigs was arrange by Anton and her relatives.
She pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for the crime but Justice David Cannings said this was not a strong case for a suspension of the sentence.