Police in the Central Province have executed its first Interim Protection Order in the Province on a 28-year-man under the Family Protection Act on 3 May 2018 as it warns that domestic violence cannot be tolerated.
Provincial Police Commander (PPC), Central Province, Superintendent Patricia Leta explains: “A male person from Toa Village, on Small Ngella and was married to his wife, the victim, in 2007 and the couple lived in the Foxwood area in Guadalcanal Province where his parents lived.”
PPC Leta says, “In her statement the victim said she did not have any freedom and her husband continued to ill-treat her until July 2017 when she reported her husband to police at the Henderson Police Station east of Honiara.”
“Police at Henderson served two Police Safety Notices (PSNs) on the man and formally charged him for domestic violence but he did not change,” Superintendent Leta explains.
PPC Leta adds: “The victim with her four children then escaped to Ghole Village on Small Ngella but her husband followed and assaulted her and forced her to return with him to Foxwood at Central Guadalcanal.”
“The victim felt that she has no freedom when living with her husband and decided to apply for an Interim Protection Order under the Family Protection Act. The Central Magistrates Court in Honiara granted the Order on 5 April 2018 and police here at Tulagi executed the Order on the respondent on 3 May 2018,” says Superintendent Leta.
The Interim Protection Order protects the victim and her children from her husband.
“It is sad to see an Interim Order being executed for the first time in Central Province but I hope that it is a lesson to perpetrators of domestic violence that the Family Protection Act protects our women and children from men who do not respect the female members of our communities as fellow human beings. Victims of domestic violence are urged to report such incidences to your nearest police station and not continue to suffer silently,” says PPC Leta.