Suspended dept secretary guilty of sex related charges
News that matter in Papua New Guinea
Suspended dept secretary guilty of sex related charges
PORT MORESBY: Suspended Commerce and Industry Department secretary Andrew
Liliura was found guilty of three sex-related charges and will be sentenced on
Feb 8, 2022.
Acting judge Justice Laura Kuvi said the evidence
submitted by Joyce Ding, the department’s public relations officer, was independently
corroborated by State witnesses.
Lilura was found guilty of sexual touching, three counts
of sex and two counts of compel to touch.
Details of the court proceedings were published by The National:
Official
guilty of sex charges
January 26, 2022The
NationalMain Stories
By CLARISSA MOI
A JUDGE has found suspended Commerce and Industry Department secretary
Andrew Liliura guilty of three sex-related charges relating to a senior female
officer he worked with.
Acting judge Justice Laura Kuvi said the evidence submitted by complainant
Joyce Ding, the department’s public relations officer, was independently
corroborated by State witnesses.
Liliura faced four counts of sexual touching, three counts of sex and two
counts of compel to touch.
The State alleged that between June 1 and June 30, 2018, Ding went into
Liliura’s office on a business matter, and was subjected to a kiss and a pinch
on the buttock.
Then in June 2018, Liliura told Ding that he wanted to have sex with her.
Then on April 2, 2019, he put his arms around her from behind in his office and
said: “When we go to China, I will have you.”
Justice Kuvi found Liliura guilty of sexually assaulting Ding.
“In relation to the charge of sexual assault, I am satisfied that all the
elements are made out. The accused touched her buttock without her consent,”
she said.
In relation to the indecent act, Justice Kuvi said there was no definition of
the charge in the Criminal Code.
She said it was an office environment.
“The accused was the department head and his statements were for the sexual
gratification of himself,” she said.
“Such words will not be acceptable in any office by the head of an organisation
directed at any female subordinate.
“I am satisfied that the State has established that the words (Liliura) used in
counts two and three were sexual in nature and any reasonable person will be
offended or insulted by that.”
Justice Kuvi noted that the circumstances surrounding Ding’s reporting was
quite different from the other two complainants, Rebecca Yakopa, the
department’s librarian and Magie Guants.
“I find that the foregoing demonstrated that their evidence were tailored to
give support to Joyce Ding,” she said.
She acquitted Liliura on the counts relating to the complaints by Yakopa and
Guants, but convicted him on the three counts relating to Ding.
The matter returns to court on Feb 8 for sentencing submission.
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